In Depth
Diluvicursor is a genus of small ornithopod dinosaur that lived in what is now Australia during the early Cretaceous. Description of the genus was based upon a mostly complete tail and lower leg bones that were preserved flat on a slab of rock. These have been identified to have come from a juvenile animal, not yet fully grown. When compared to other more complete genera of small ornithopod dinosaurs such as Hypsilophodon, this came to a total estimated size of a little over a meter. A second vertebra from an older and possibly fully grown individual Diluvicursor has also been found, and when the other remains are scaled up to match, and again using knowledge from other genera to fill the missing parts, an estimated size of over two meters was established for the genus.
Small ornithopod dinosaurs like Diluvicursor are usually established as herbivores (though an omnivorous diet has at times been suggested for some genera), feeding upon low growing plants and relying upon a combination of speed, agility and sharp senses to stay alive. Although at the time of writing not known from the same fossil formation as Diluvicursor, megaraptoran dinosaurs like Australovenator are known to have been active in Australia earlier in the Cretaceous, and might have still been present in the time of Diluvicursor.
Further Reading
- A new small-bodied ornithopod (Dinosauria, Ornithischia) from a deep, high-energy Early Cretaceous river of the Australian-Antarctic rift system. - PeerJ 5:e4113. - M. C. Herne, A. M. Tait, V. Weisbecker, M. Hall, J. P. Nair, M. Cleeland & S. W. Salisbury - 2018.
