Archaeoceratops
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A. oshimai |
Archaeoceratops, meaning "ancient horned face", was a neoceratopsian from the early Cretaceous in North Central China. It appears to have been bipedal and quite small (1 metre long), with no horns and only a small frill.
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[edit] Discovery and Species
Its fossils were found in the Xinminbao Group, Gongpoquan Basin of the Mazongshan Area of Gansu Province, north central China. It was named by Dong Zhiming and Azuma in 1996.
Archaeoceratops Species
- A. oshimai
[edit] Classification
Archaeoceratops belonged to the Ceratopsia (the name is Greek for "horned face"), a group of herbivorous dinosaurs with parrot-like beaks which thrived in North America and Asia during the Cretaceous Period. In 1997 Dong and Azuma placed it in a new family, Archaeoceratopsidae.
[edit] Diet
Archaeoceratops, like all Ceratopsians, was a herbivore. During the Cretaceous, flowering plants were "geographically limited on the landscape", and so it is likely that this dinosaur fed on the predominant plants of the era: ferns, cycads and conifers. It would have used its sharp Ceratopsian beak to bite off the leaves or needles.
[edit] References
- http://www.dinosaurvalley.com/groups.html
- http://208.164.121.55/reference/dinosaur/dodson.htm
- http://www.dinoruss.org/de_4/5a78e3c.htm
- Archaeoceratops in the Dino Directory
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