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History UsefulNotes / PrehistoricLifePrimitiveOrnithischians

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* Heterodontosaurians were originally thought ornithopods, then ancient relatives of ceratopsians and pachycephalosaurs; today they are generally regarded as very basal ornithischians. Despite their primitiveness, heterodontosaurs not only flourished in the Early Jurassic, but also managed to survive until the Late Jurassic and even the Early Cretaceous: English ''Echinodon'' lived alongside ''Iguanodon'' and ''Hypsilophodon''! Half the length of ''Heterodontosaurus tucki'' and with small tusks only in the upper jaws, ''Echinodon'' ("hedgehog tooth") is known to science since the middle XIX century, but its classification as a heterodontosaurian has been confirmed only after the discovery of the namesake of the group (it was also briefly believed a ''Scutellosaurus'' relative in the nineties). Some important dinosaur discoveries that have been made since the 2009 regard the heterodontosaurian group. For example, ''Fruitadens'' ("Fruita's tooth" from the geological formation that preserved it) lived in the Late Jurassic North America alongside the famous Jurassic StockDinosaurs; in opposite to the "younger" ''Echinodon'', ''Fruitadens'' has tusks only in its lower jaw. With only two feet of length (the same size of a ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursSaurischianDinosaurs Microraptor]]''), ''Fruitadens'' is currently the smallest known North American dinosaur; it and ''Echinodon'' are among the smallest bird-hipped dinosaurs ever discovered, only equaled by some marginocephalians (ceratopsians & pachycephalosaurs) like ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursOrnithischianDinosaurs Microceratus]]'' and ''[[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLifePachycephalosaurs Wannanosaurus]]'', and some "hypsilophodont" ornithopods.

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* Heterodontosaurians were originally thought ornithopods, then ancient relatives of ceratopsians and pachycephalosaurs; today they are generally regarded as very basal ornithischians. Despite their primitiveness, heterodontosaurs not only flourished in the Early Jurassic, but also managed to survive until the Late Jurassic and even the Early Cretaceous: English ''Echinodon'' lived alongside ''Iguanodon'' and ''Hypsilophodon''! Half the length of ''Heterodontosaurus tucki'' and with small tusks only in the upper jaws, ''Echinodon'' ("hedgehog tooth") is known to science since the middle XIX century, but its classification as a heterodontosaurian has been confirmed only after the discovery of the namesake of the group (it was also briefly believed a ''Scutellosaurus'' relative in the nineties). Some important dinosaur discoveries that have been made since the 2009 regard the heterodontosaurian group. For example, ''Fruitadens'' ("Fruita's tooth" from the geological formation that preserved it) lived in the Late Jurassic North America alongside the famous Jurassic StockDinosaurs; dinosaurs; in opposite to the "younger" ''Echinodon'', ''Fruitadens'' has tusks only in its lower jaw. With only two feet of length (the same size of a ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursSaurischianDinosaurs Microraptor]]''), ''Fruitadens'' is currently the smallest known North American dinosaur; it and ''Echinodon'' are among the smallest bird-hipped dinosaurs ever discovered, only equaled by some marginocephalians (ceratopsians & pachycephalosaurs) like ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursOrnithischianDinosaurs Microceratus]]'' and ''[[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLifePachycephalosaurs Wannanosaurus]]'', and some "hypsilophodont" ornithopods.

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