Ornithodesmus

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Ornithodesmus Fossil range: Early Cretaceous
Conservation status
Fossil
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Sauropsida Superorder: Dinosauria Order: Saurischia Suborder: Theropoda (unranked) Coelurosauria Family: Ornithodesmidae Hooley, 1913 Genus: Ornithodesmus
Binomial name
Ornithodesmus cluniculus Seeley, 1887

Ornithodesmus ("bird link") is a genus of small, coelurosaurian dinosaur that lived in England 130 million years ago. The name was originally assigned to a bird-like sacrum (a series of vertebrae fused to the hip bones), initially believed to come from a pterosaur. More pterosaur remains were later assigned to Ornithodesmus, until it was determined that the original specimen in fact came from a small coelurosaur, possibly a troodontid or dromaeosaurid. All pterosaurian material previously assigned to this genus has been re-named Istiodactylus.