''Archaeoceratops'', meaning "ancient horned face", is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...

basal Basal or basilar is a term meaning ''base'', ''bottom'', or ''minimum''. Science * Basal (anatomy), an anatomical term of location for features associated with the base of an organism or structure * Basal (medicine), a minimal level that is nec ...

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...

from the

Early Cretaceous The Early Cretaceous (geochronological name) or the Lower Cretaceous ( chronostratigraphic name), is the earlier or lower of the two major divisions of the Cretaceous. It is usually considered to stretch from 145 Ma to 100.5 Ma. Geology Pr ...

( Aptian stage) of north central China. It appears to have been bipedal and quite small, reaching in length and in body mass. It had a comparatively large head but no horns, possessing only a small bony frill projecting from the back of its head.

Discovery and species

Two specimens were found in the Middle Gray Unit of the

Xinminbao Group The Xīnmínbǎo Group () is a group of geological formations in north central China. They occur across a large depression between the Altai mountains of Mongolia to the north and the Qilian mountains of the Qinghai Plateau to the south, in the ...

, Gongpoquan Basin of the

Mazong Shan The Mǎzōng Shān () is a minor mountain range of Subei Mongol Autonomous County, Jiuquan, northern Gansu, China, between the Altay range to the north and the Qilian range to the south. The Mǎzōng Shān peak rises to 2584 m. Climate Mount M ...

area of Gansu Province, north central China. The

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen( ...

, ''A. oshimai'', was named by Dong Zhiming and Azuma in 1997. It is the first basal neoceratopsian discovered in this area. The

type Type may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc. * Data type, collection of values used for computations. * File type * TYPE (DOS command), a command to display contents of a file. * Ty ...

specimen, IVPP V11114, consists of a partially complete skeleton including skull, caudal vertebrae, pelvis, and most of a hind foot. The second specimen ( paratype), IVPP V11115, consists of an incomplete skeleton with a relatively well preserved caudal series, a partial hind limb, and a completely preserved foot. It is slightly smaller than the

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of seve ...

Classification

''Archaeoceratops'' belonged to the Ceratopsia (the name is

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

for "horned face"), a group of

herbivorous A herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically adapted to eating plant material, for example foliage or marine algae, for the main component of its diet. As a result of their plant diet, herbivorous animals typically have mouthpart ...

dinosaurs with

parrot Parrots, also known as psittacines (), are birds of the roughly 398 species in 92 genera comprising the order Psittaciformes (), found mostly in tropical and subtropical regions. The order is subdivided into three superfamilies: the Psittaco ...

-like beaks which thrived in North America and

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an ...

during the

Cretaceous Period The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of ...

. In 1997 Dong and Azuma placed it in a new family, Archaeoceratopsidae. ''

Helioceratops ''Helioceratops'' is a genus of herbivorous neoceratopsian dinosaur from the Middle Cretaceous of China. Discovery and naming In 2000 and 2002, at the Liufangzi site of China's eastern Jilin province, excavations took place during which ...

'' and possibly ''

Yamaceratops ''Yamaceratops'' is a genus of primitive ceratopsian that lived in Asia during the Late Cretaceous period in what is now the Javkhlant Formation. Initially, the rocks where it was found in were thought to be from the Early Cretaceous, but ...

'' have also been found to be members of Archaeoceratopsidae.

Diet

''Archaeoceratops'', like all ceratopsians, was a

herbivore A herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically adapted to eating plant material, for example foliage or marine algae, for the main component of its diet. As a result of their plant diet, herbivorous animals typically have mouthp ...

. 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 beak to bite off the leaves or needles and chop them up to be swallowed.

References

Sources

* *
''Archaeoceratops''
in the Dino Directory Neoceratopsians Early Cretaceous dinosaurs of Asia Fossil taxa described in 1997 Taxa named by Dong Zhiming Paleontology in Gansu Ornithischian genera {{ceratopsian-stub

Discovery and species

Classification

Diet

See also

References

Sources