New evidence for the earliest ornithischian dinosaurs from Asia

The Early Jurassic ornithischian dinosaurs in Laurasia are dominated by armored dinosaurs, with other early ornithischian groups being rare. Here, a new taxon, Archaeocursor asiaticus gen. et sp. nov., is reported from the Lower Jurassic of southwestern China. Phylogenetic analysis places Archaeocursor asiaticus as the earliest-diverging ornithischian dinosaur yet discovered in Asia, albeit with weak support. Osteohistological analysis of the femoral cross-section suggests that Archaeocursor asiaticus was a young adult at the time of death, indicating a small body size of approximately 1 meter in body length. This discovery extends the known presence of ornithischian dinosaurs in East Asia to the Pliensbachian or even late Sinemurian stages. Additionally, it points to an earlier dispersal event of Early Jurassic ornithischian dinosaurs from Gondwana to Laurasia, including East Asia, which appears to be independent of, and possibly earlier than, the dispersal of armored dinosaurs., These files include a data matrix for phylogenetic analysis used in the paper, and the supplementary information detailing the collecting and analysis of the data set. It also includes additional comparison with other ornithischian dinosaurs. , , # New evidence for the earliest ornithischian dinosaurs from Asia

We have submitted the data matrix used for our phylogenetic analysis (Dataset S1. tnt), and supplemental information (Supplemental information.docx) for our paper.

#### Descriptions of the data and file structure

**Dataset S1**

This is a typical TNT file used in our phylogenetic analysis. It includes 383 morphological characters extracted from 73 taxa (mostly ornithischian dinosaurs and a few outgroups).

**Supplemental information**
This file includes supplementing content used to support the conclusion of our paper, but which is not suitable for the main context. It includes additional comparison with Heterodontosauridae and Silesauridae. Some technical details concerning the phylogenetic analyses are also included in this file.

Software
TNT 1.1 is required to run Dataset S1; the supplemetal information was created using Microsoft Word.