biology

Minimocursor

Minimocursor is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Minimocursor rather than just read about it. In short: Minimocursor (meaning "smallest runner") is a genus of basal neornithischian dinosaur from the Late Jurassic Phu Kradung Formation of Thailand. The type species is Minimocursor phunoiensis.

Key takeaways

Minimocursor belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Minimocursor to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Minimocursor from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Minimocursor (meaning "smallest runner") is a genus of basal neornithischian dinosaur from the Late Jurassic Phu Kradung Formation of Thailand. The type species is Minimocursor phunoiensis.

Discovery and naming

The holotype specimen, PRC 150, was excavated in 2012 and prepared for the next five years. It consists of a postcranial specimen that is more than 50% complete. Other referred specimens include an isolated dentary briefly described in 2014 and pes material. Several more specimens remain unprepared as of 2023. These bones were considered to represent a new genus and species, Minimocursor phunoiensis, in 2023. The generic name, "Minimocursor", combines the Latin words "minimus", meaning "the smallest", in reference to the holotype's small size, and "cursor", meaning "runner". The specific name, "phunoiensis", refers to the excavation site, Phu Noi.

Description The not-fully-grown holotype has been estimated as 0.6 metres (2.0 ft) long, similar to the size of Agilisaurus. Larger remains hint that the fully-grown animal would have been 2 metres (6.6 ft) long.

Phylogeny

Manitkoon et al. (2023) added Minimocursor to a phylogenetic analysis, adding the holotype, pes, and dentary as separate operational taxonomic units (OTUs). All three claded together at the base of the Neornithischia, outside Thescelosauridae and Cerapoda, making it the first basal neornithischian known from Southeast Asia. Their cladogram is shown below:

Palaeoenvironment

The Phu Kradung Formation preserves a diverse assemblage of animals. Minimocursor would have lived alongside several fish and turtles, an indeterminate pterosaur, an indeterminate stegosaur, an indeterminate metriacanthosaurid, an indeterminate mamenchisaurid, and the thalattosuchian Indosinosuchus.

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Minimocursor

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Minimocursor claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Minimocursor before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Minimocursor ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Minimocursor

In research: Minimocursor appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Minimocursor in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Minimocursor is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Dinosaur genera, Dinosaurs of Thailand, Fossil taxa described in 2023, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Minimocursor outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Minimocursor in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Minimocursor means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Minimocursor out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Minimocursor in simple terms?

Minimocursor (meaning "smallest runner") is a genus of basal neornithischian dinosaur from the Late Jurassic Phu Kradung Formation of Thailand. The type species is Minimocursor phunoiensis.

Why does Minimocursor matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Minimocursor?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Minimocursor.