page_title: Ornithischia
hierarchical_section_title: Ornithischia
caption_attribution_description: Pelvic bones, hip joint and adjacent structures of the ornithischian dinosaur Edmontosaurus annectens, seen from the left side; part of a mounted replica of a composite skeleton in the Oxford University Museum.
context_page_description: Ornithischia is an order of beaked, herbivorous dinosaurs. They are known as the 'bird-hipped' dinosaurs because of their hip structure. However, birds actually descended from the 'lizard-hipped' dinosaurs, the Saurischia. The name "Ornithischia" means "bird-hipped," and birds also have pelvises in which the pubis points backwards.
  An alternative name for the order is the Predentata, because all of them are beaked herbivorous dinosaurs. The beak is in front of the jaw-bone, the dentary, so it is a 'predentary'. The upper half of the beak is the 'premaxilla' on the end of the upper jaw. The beak is a key adaptation for cropping plants for their food.
  Their original form of locomotion was bipedal. However, from early in their evolutionary history, they were capable of both bipedal and quadrupedal locomotion. Several groups became entirely quadrupedal.
  The ornithischia has two sub-orders:
  Thyreophora: the armoured dinosaurs: Ankylosaurs and Stegosaurs.
  Cerapoda: the duck-billed and horned dinosaurs.
context_section_description: Ornithischia is an order of beaked, herbivorous dinosaurs. They are known as the 'bird-hipped' dinosaurs because of their hip structure. However, birds actually descended from the 'lizard-hipped' dinosaurs, the Saurischia. The name "Ornithischia" means "bird-hipped," and birds also have pelvises in which the pubis points backwards. 
  An alternative name for the order is the Predentata, because all of them are beaked herbivorous dinosaurs. The beak is in front of the jaw-bone, the dentary, so it is a 'predentary'. The upper half of the beak is the 'premaxilla' on the end of the upper jaw. The beak is a key adaptation for cropping plants for their food.
  Their original (basal) form of locomotion was bipedal. However, from early in their evolutionary history, they were capable of both bipedal and quadrupedal locomotion. Several groups became entirely quadrupedal.
  The ornithischia has two sub-orders:
  Thyreophora: the armoured dinosaurs: Ankylosaurs and Stegosaurs.
  Cerapoda: the duck-billed and horned dinosaurs.
caption: Edmontosaurus pelvis (showing ornithischian structure – left side, tail to the right) Oxford University Museum of Natural History
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