PROTOCERATOPS
a plant-eating protoceratopsid ceratopsian dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Mongolia.
Pronunciation: PROH-toe-SEH-ruh-tops
Meaning: First horned face
Author/s: Granger and Gregory (
1923)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Gobi desert, Mongolia
Discovery Chart Position: #136
Protoceratops andrewsi
(Andrew's first horn face)Etymology
Protoceratops is derived from the Greek "proto" (first), "ceras" (horn) and "ops" (face). Roy Chapman Andrews, who is honored in the
species epithet,
andrewsi, declared this critter the "long-sought ancestor of
Triceratops" but it's no such thing. Granted, because of its frill it may appear to be closer to ceratopsids proper than, say,
Psittacosaurus, but protoceratopsids (
Protoceratops and family), ceratopsids (
Triceratops and family) and leptoceratopsids (
Leptoceratops and family) are all different branches within Neoceratopsia and non gave rise to the other.
ZooBank registry:
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:355E86B7-F502-487C-B499-2EB6EAB7656A.
Discovery
The first fossils of
Protoceratops were discovered at Bayn Dzak ("Flaming Cliffs") in the
Djadochta Formation at Ganhu, Inner Mongolia, by photographer J.B. Shackelford during a 1922 Roy Chapman Andrews-led American Central Asiatic Expeditions to the Gobi Dessert whilst looking for human ancestors.
The
holotype (AMNH 6251) is a well-preserved skeleton.
Estimations
Timeline:
Era: Mesozoic
Epoch: Late Cretaceous
Stage: Campanian-Maastrichtian
Age range: 86-71 mya
Stats:
Est. max. length: 1.8 meters
Est. max. hip height: 0.7 meters
Est. max. weight: 180 Kg
Diet: Herbivore
Protoceratops
andrewsi
References
• Granger W and Gregory WK (1923) "
Protoceratops andrewsi, a pre-ceratopsian dinosaur from Mongolia, with an appendix on the structural relationships of the Protoceratops beds".
American Museum Novitates, 72: 1-9
• Maryanska T and Osmólska H (1975) "Protoceratopsidae (Dinosauria) of Asia".
Palaeontologica Polonica, 33: 133-181
• Dodson P (1996) "
The Horned Dinosaurs".
• Lambert O, Godefroit P, Li H, Shang CY and Dong Z (2001) "A new species of
Protoceratops (Dinosauria, Neoceratopsia) from the Late Cretaceous of Inner Mongolia (P. R. China)".
Bulletin de l'Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique, Sciences de la Terre: 5-28
• You H and Dodson P (2004) "Basal Ceratopsia". In Weishampel, Dodson and Osmólska (eds.) "
The Dinosauria: Second Edition".
• Mayor A (2011) "
The First Fossil Hunters: Dinosaurs, Mammoths, and Myth in Greek and Roman Times".
• Niedzwiedzki, Singer, Gierlinski Lockley, Grzegorz, Tomasz, Gerard D., and Martin G. (2011). "A protoceratopsid skeleton with an associated track from the Upper Cretaceousof Mongolia".
Cretaceous Research, 33: 7-10. DOI: 10.1016/j.cretres.2011.07.001
• Longrich N (2010) "The Function of Large Eyes in
Protoceratops: A Nocturnal Ceratopsian?" in Michael J. Ryan, Brenda J. Chinnery-Allgeier, and David A. Eberth "
New Perspectives on Horned Dinosaurs: The Royal Tyrrell Museum Ceratopsian Symposium".
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To cite this page:
Atkinson, L.
"
PROTOCERATOPS :: from DinoChecker's dinosaur archive".
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