#archaeocursor

[tinylongwing]

Archaeocursor asiaticus, here taking a bit of a sit-down from all the running they and their kind are so often shown doing. I added the head portrait on the side later to further develop the idea of a head wattle. Brightly-colored patches of skin like this are common in modern cursorial birds such as pheasants, which I imagine these little guys' lifestyle may have resembled.

@a-dinosaur-a-day

[rajingdragon]

I should've drawn hands picking it up like a cat

[darkmasterofdragons]

Februsaury Day 10: Archaeocursor Asiaticus

This guys appearance is pretty much entirely made up on my part due to it being a very newly described species with only a single leg bone so far having been found! Just a lil guy

@a-dinosaur-a-day

Image ID: A realistic graphite drawing of an extinct Archaeocursor Asiaticus from the neck up. This small ornithischian has a darkly coloured scaled face with a relatively narrow snout, small nostrils and large eyes. Around its eyes on the cheek, jaw and forehead light coloured feathers sprout up and continue covering the rest of the animals neck in feathers. Beneath the Archaeocursors chin to the left of the image is handwritten writing which reads,"Februsaury Day 10 - Archaeocursor Asiaticus - Early Jurassic" and just beside this the handwritten artists signature,"Xavier Daigle 2026". END ID.

[thatonegaycactus]

Day 41 of Draw Dinos Daily! The Archaeocursor! Turns out this guy is (so far) the most basal asian ornithischian! They were also so tiny, smaller than you'd think!

[salubri-outcast]

More Dinotopia fake screenshot.

An Archaeocursor named Sharja challenges a friend to a footrace

[new-dinosaurs]

Archaeocursor asiaticus Yao et al., 2024 (new genus and species)

(Type femur [thigh bone] of Archaeocursor asiaticus [scale bar = 30 mm], from Yao et al., 2024)

Meaning of name: Archaeocursor = archaic [in Greek] runner [in Latin]; asiaticus = from Asia

Age: Early Jurassic (Sinemurian–Pliensbachian)

Where found: Ziliujing Formation, Chongqing, China

How much is known: A left femur (thigh bone).

Notes: Archaeocursor appears to have been an early ornithischian ("bird-hipped" dinosaur), the group of mainly herbivorous dinosaurs that includes the armored stegosaurs and ankylosaurs, duck-billed hadrosaurids, and horned ceratopsians, among many others (but confusingly, not birds). If so, it would be the oldest ornithischian known from Asia.

Based on microscopic examination of its bone structure, the type specimen of Archaeocursor was close to fully grown when it died. Like most other known Early Jurassic ornithischians, it was relatively small, probably around 1 m in total body length.

Reference: Yao, X., Q. Zhao, T. Ren, G. Wei, and X. Xu. 2024. New evidence for the earliest ornithischian dinosaurs from Asia. iScience advance online publication. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.111641