Stormbergia dangershoeki (possibly Lesothosaurus)

Stormbergia is a small ornithischian dinosaur whose remains were discovered in the early Jurassic "Elliot formation" of southern Africa. Since it was found in the same deposits of Lesothosaurus and apparently differs from it only in some ontogenic traits, it is almost certain that these two animals are synonims, and that Sormbergia represents the adult form. Originally I had in fact the clear will to draw Lesothosaurus, but a quick internet research brought me to this dinosaur, and since it was portrayed in a skeletal by Dr Scott Hartman, I happily used his reconstruction as a base.
Hartman himself is however skeptical about the Stormbergia\Lesothosaurus synonimy, as he states that "while some have speculated that Stormbergia is actually an adult form of Lesothosaurus, it actually appears to be more advanced than Lesothosaurus, and moreover Stormbergia specimens also appear to be sub-adults".
An interesting feature of all these small ornithischians is the shape and position of their palpebral bone, similar to the lacrimal of some birds of prey. In my opinion, despite their stereotypical "small, cute and harmless" appearance, their narrow "eyebrow" in the middle of the orbital fenestra probably gave them an almost raptorial, "evil" aspect.


Drawing based off the Scott Hartman's skeletal reconstruction
scotthartman.deviantart.com/ar…
Length: 2 m
Butler, 2005



Muscioni Marco, 2016
Graphite on paper

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