''Koreaceratops'' () is a genus of

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 ...

ceratopsia Ceratopsia or Ceratopia ( or ; Greek: "horned faces") is a group of herbivorous, beaked dinosaurs that thrived in what are now North America, Europe, and Asia, during the Cretaceous Period, although ancestral forms lived earlier, in the Jurassic. ...

n dinosaur discovered in Albian-age Lower Cretaceous rocks of South Korea.

Discovery

Koreaceratops skeletal drawing (PARK & SON, 2022)

It is based on KIGAM VP 200801, an articulated series of 36

caudal Caudal may refer to: Anatomy * Caudal (anatomical term) (from Latin ''cauda''; tail), used to describe how close something is to the trailing end of an organism * Caudal artery, the portion of the dorsal aorta of a vertebrate that passes into the ...

vertebrae associated with partial hind limbs and ischia. This specimen was found in a sandstone block that had been incorporated into the Tando dam at Hwaseong City; the way the specimen is cut off suggests that more of it was present before quarrying. The dam was built in 1994, and the bones were first brought to the attention of paleontologists in 2008, after a public official noticed them. The specimen came from the Sihwa Formation. ''Koreaceratops'' was described by Yuong-Nam Lee and colleagues in

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

. The genus name is a combination of "Korea" and the Greek ''κέρας'' (''keras'') meaning 'horn' and ''ὄψις'' (''opsis'') meaning 'face'. The type species is ''K. hwaseongensis'', named after Hwaseong City.

Classification

''Koreaceratops'' is notable for the tall

neural spines The spinal column, a defining synapomorphy shared by nearly all vertebrates,Hagfish are believed to have secondarily lost their spinal column is a moderately flexible series of vertebrae (singular vertebra), each constituting a characteristic ...

on its caudal vertebrae, and for the structure of its astragalus. In some of the

distal Standard anatomical terms of location are used to unambiguously describe the anatomy of animals, including humans. The terms, typically derived from Latin or Greek roots, describe something in its standard anatomical position. This position pro ...

caudal vertebrae, the neural spines are over five times the height of the

vertebral centra The spinal column, a defining synapomorphy shared by nearly all vertebrates,Hagfish are believed to have secondarily lost their spinal column is a moderately flexible series of vertebrae (singular vertebra), each constituting a characteristic ...

to which they attach. Lee ''et al''. noted that several other ceratopsians also had tall neural spines on their caudals. As this trait appears in several branches of ceratopsians, Lee ''et al.'' postulated that the feature was independently evolved, perhaps as an adaptation for swimming. Lee ''et al.'' performed a phylogenetic analysis and found ''Koreaceratops'' to be positioned between ''

Archaeoceratops ''Archaeoceratops'', meaning "ancient horned face", is a genus of basal neoceratopsian dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous (Aptian stage) of north central China. It appears to have been bipedal and quite small, reaching in length and in body m ...

'' and more

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ceratopsians. A 2022 study however, suggests it is closer to '' Protoceratops'' than to earlier animals like '' Psittacosaurus'' and ''Archaeoceratops''. Koreaceratops NT

Paleobiology

An examination of the bone histology of ''Koreaceratops'' published in 2022 suggests that the type specimen was roughly eight years old when it died. The same study suggests that ''Koreaceratops'' lived in a semiarid environment, and that microbial erosion is responsible for the poor preservation of its distinguishing features. Thomas Holtz gave a length estimate of and a mass estimate as that of a beaver.

References

Neoceratopsians Early Cretaceous dinosaurs of Asia Albian life Fossil taxa described in 2011 Ornithischian genera {{ceratopsian-stub