Saurischia Temporal range: Upper Triassic – Upper Cretaceous (non-avian)
Replica skeleton of an Eoraptor
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Sauropsida
Superorder:	Dinosauria
Order:	Saurischia Seeley, 1887

Saurischian pelvis (left side)

Saurischia is one of the two orders of dinosaurs. In 1888, Harry Seeley classified dinosaurs into two main orders. Their hip structure was why they were put into these orders. Saurischians ('lizard-hipped') and the ornithischians ('bird-hipped') have differences in the ways bones in the hip are put together.

All carnivorous dinosaurs (the theropods) are saurischians, and so are the sauropods like Diplodocus and Brachiosaurus.

Birds are direct descendants of a group of theropod dinosaurs, so they are a sub-clade of saurischian dinosaurs in modern classification.

• Order Saurischia
  • suborder Theropoda
  • suborder Sauropoda