Saurischia

Saurischia; Temporal range: Upper Triassic – Upper Cretaceous (non-avian)
	Replica skeleton of an Eoraptor
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Sauropsida
Superorder:	Dinosauria
Order:	Saurischia; Seeley, 1887

Saurischia is one of the two orders of dinosaurs. In 1888, Harry Seeley classified dinosaurs into two main orders.^[1] Their hip structure was why they were put into these orders. Saurischians ('lizard-hipped') and the ornithischians ('bird-hipped') have differences in the ways bones in the hip are put together.

All carnivorous dinosaurs (the theropods) are saurischians, and so are the sauropods like Diplodocus and Brachiosaurus.

Birds are direct descendants of a group of theropod dinosaurs,^[2] so they are a sub-clade of saurischian dinosaurs in modern classification.

Order Saurischia
- suborder Theropoda
- suborder Sauropoda

Related pages[change | change source]

Ornithischia

References[change | change source]

↑ Seeley, H.G. (1888). "On the classification of the fossil animals commonly named Dinosauria." Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, 43: 165-171.
↑ The dinosauria (2nd ed.). Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press. 2004. ISBN 978-0-520-94143-4. OCLC 801843269.

[seeley1888-1] Seeley, H.G. (1888). "On the classification of the fossil animals commonly named Dinosauria." Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, 43: 165-171.

[padian2004-2] The dinosauria (2nd ed.). Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press. 2004. ISBN 978-0-520-94143-4. OCLC 801843269.

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