Meaning
Isle of Wight Runner
Length
60cm (2 foot)
Classification
Ornithopoda,
Hypsilophodontidae Dollo, 1882
Vectidromeus insularis Longrich et al 2023
Locations
The type specimen was found at Sudmoor Point, in the Sudmoor Point Sandstone near the base of the exposed Wessex Formation, and over 150 meters below the Hypsilophodon bed that produced the holotype of Hypsilophodon foxii.
A maximum of 3 million years separate the Sudmoor Point Sandstone and the Hypsilophodon beds that produced the Hypsilophodon holotype.
A small ornithopod dinosaur, Vectidromeus may have lived a gazelle-like lifestyle, feeding on the ferns and cycads, running away when attacked by predators.
Like its later relative Hypsilophodon, Vectidromeus may have been a social animal, living in herds.
Although Vectidromeus is similar to Hypsilophodon, it can be distinguished by a convex dorsal margin on the neural spines of the dorsal vertebrae, an ilium with a short,
ventrally directed pubic peduncle and a strongly arched dorsal margin, short and deep posterior ala of ilium,and a laterally exposed brevis fossa.
The ischium has a broad, rectangular distal blade, with the obturator process small and weakly demarcated from ischium. The femur has a large, broad fourth trochanter, similar to that of Hypsilophodon.