Prenoceratops

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Prenoceratops
Temporal range:
Ma
↓
Cast of a fossil skeleton, The Children's Museum of Indianapolis
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: †Ornithischia
Clade: †Ceratopsia
Family: †Leptoceratopsidae
Genus: †Prenoceratops
Chinnery, 2004
Species:
†P. pieganensis
Binomial name
†Prenoceratops pieganensis
Chinnery, 2004

Prenoceratops, (meaning 'bent or prone-horned face' and derived from

Period. It was a relatively small dinosaur, reaching 1.3 m (4.3 ft) in length and 20 kg (44 lb) in body mass.[1] Its fossils have been found in the upper Two Medicine Formation in the present-day U.S. state of Montana, in Campanian age rock layers that have been dated to 74.3 million years ago.[2] Fossils were also found in the Oldman Formation in the modern day Canadian province of Alberta, dating to around 77 million years ago.[3][4]

Discovery and species

Restoration

Prenoceratops was first discovered on a

TCM 2003.1.1. Prenoceratops was later described by Brenda J. Chinnery in 2004, though the taxon has been little noticed since.[5] It is unusual in that it is the only basal neoceratopsian known from a bonebed and the sheer number of elements.[2][5]

An isolated right frontal from the Oldman Formation of southern Alberta, Canada was described in 2010 and ascribed to Prenoceratops as P. sp.[3] The fossil was found near a fossilized nesting site of Hypacrosaurus.[3]

Named Prenoceratops species include only P. pieganensis (type).[5]

Classification

Prenoceratops belonged to the Ceratopsia (which name is derived from Ancient Greek, meaning 'horned face'), a group of herbivorous dinosaurs with parrot-like beaks, which thrived in North America and Asia during the Cretaceous Period. It is closely related to Leptoceratops, which it antedates by several million years. It is characterized by a lower, more sloping head than that of Leptoceratops.

Diet

Prenoceratops, 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.

See also

References

  1. OCLC 985402380
    .
  2. ^ a b c Ryan, M. J., Evans, D. C., Currie, P. J., Brown, C. M., & Brinkman, D. (2012). New leptoceratopsids from the Upper Cretaceous of Alberta, Canada. Cretaceous Research, 35: 69-80.
  3. ^ a b c Miyashita, T. E. T. S. U. T. O., Currie, P. J., Chinnery-Allgeier, B. J., Ryan, M. J., Chinnery-Allgeier, B. J., & Eberth, D. A. (2010). First basal neoceratopsian from the Oldman Formation (Belly River Group), southern Alberta. In New perspectives on horned dinosaurs: the Royal Tyrrell Museum Ceratopsian Symposium. Edited by MJ Ryan, BJ Chinnery-Allgeier, and DA Eberth. Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN (pp. 83-90).
  4. ISSN 0272-4634
    .
  5. ^
    ISSN 0272-4634
    .
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