“Cerapoda is a varied clade of ornithischian dinosaurs with a worldwide circulation,”stated Dr. Susannah Maidment, a paleontologist with the Natural History Museum, London, and the University of Birmingham, and associates.

“A significant element of Cretaceous terrestrial communities, early diverging cerapodans were bipedal, with forelimbs customized for understanding, however by the Late Cretaceous, hadrosaurids and ceratopsids had actually developed obligate quadrupedality and advanced chewing systems, and they ended up being the dominant herbivores of the northern hemisphere.”

“Cerapoda is made up of 2 significant clades: Ornithopoda, that includes the non-hadrosaurid iguanodontians and the duck-billed hadrosaurids, and Marginocephalia, that includes the horned, frilled ceratopsians and the dome-headed pachycephalosaurs.”

“Cerapodans are popular from the Cretaceous duration, however their Jurassic record is much poorer,” they kept in mind.

“Several track websites from the Middle Jurassic recommend that large-bodied ornithopods– most likely iguanodontians– had actually currently developed by this time, however their body fossils stay evasive.”

“To clarify the early phases of the development of Cerapoda and to assist deal with the various phylogenetic disparities amongst various analyses, brand-new specimens are required, particularly from traditionally undersampled regions.”

The brand-new cerapodan specimen– a part of a left thigh– was surface-collected in 2020 in the El Mers III Formation at Boulahfa, near Boulemane, Middle Atlas Mountains, Morocco.

The fossil is Bathonian (Middle Jurassic) in age, and dates to in between 165 and 160 million years earlier.

“The variegated green and red mudstones of the development are exceptionally fossiliferous and have up until now yielded the remains of the world’s earliest, and very first African, ankylosaur, Spicomellus aferand among the earliest stegosaurs, Adratiklit boulahfa,” the paleontologists stated.

The brand-new specimen is the world’s earliest cerapodan and just the 2nd taped from the Middle Jurassic worldwide.

“The specimen, although fragmentary, bears qualities, consisting of a femoral head balanced out on an unique neck and a tightness in between the head and higher trochanter, that join it with Cerapoda to the exemption of other neornithischians,” the scientists stated.

“Further tasting of the El Mers III Formation of Morocco is important for comprehending the Middle Jurassic radiation of ornithischian dinosaurs.”

The group’s paper was released on March 12, 2025 in the journal Royal Society Open Science

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Susannah Maidment et al2025. The world’s earliest cerapodan ornithischian dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic of Morocco. R. Soc. Open Sci 12 (3 ): 241624; doi: 10.1098/ rsos.241624