Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Sauropsida
Superorder: Dinosauria
Order: Ornithischia
Suborder: Cerapoda
Infraorder: Ornithopoda
Family: Hypsilophodontidae
Genus: Parksosaurus

Parksosaurus was a small herbivorous ornithopod that lived during the late Cretaceous (70 million years ago). Capable of reaching a length of 2.5m, it was exclusively bipedal and relied on a stiff tail and strong hindlimb muscles to balance itself when it ran. The head was small and beaked, and lacked any of the complex structures or crests found on other larger ornithopods. Parksosaurus was only 1m tall at the hips, but had a flexible neck which would allow it to reach higher levels of vegetation.

Type Specimen: ROM 804. Parks, WA. (1926).

Type Species: Parksosaurus warreni

Parks, WA. (1926). Thescelosaurus warreni, a new species of orthopodous dinosaur from the Edmonton Formation of Alberta. University of Toronto Studies Geological Series 21, pp. 1–42.

Locality:

Horseshoe Canyon Formation, Alberta, Canada

Scientific Resources:

Butler, RJ; Upchurch, P; and Norman, DB. (2008). The phylogeny of the ornithischian dinosaurs. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, Vol. 6, pp. 1-40.

Weishampel, DB; and Heinrich, RE. (1992). Systematics of Hypsilophodontidae and Basal Iguanodontia (Dinosauria: Ornithopoda). Historical Biology, Vol. 6, pp. 159-184.