''Microceratus'' (meaning "small-horned") is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

of small

ceratopsian 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. ...

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 ...

that lived in the

Cretaceous 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 th ...

period in

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 area ...

. It walked on two legs, had short front arms, a characteristic ceratopsian frill and beak-like mouth, and was around long. It was one of the first ceratopsians, or horned dinosaurs, along with ''

Psittacosaurus ''Psittacosaurus'' ( ; "parrot lizard") is a genus of extinct ceratopsian dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of what is now Asia, existing between 126 and 101 million years ago. It is notable for being the most species-rich non-avian dinosaur gen ...

'' in

Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...

Discovery

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 ...

, ''Microceratops gobiensis'', was first described by Bohlin in 1953, and so was the second species, ''M. sulcidens'', which may belong to ''

Asiaceratops ''Asiaceratops'' (meaning "Asian horned face") is a genus of herbivorous ceratopsian dinosaur. It lived during the Early-Late Cretaceous. The type species, ''A. salsopaludalis'' is known from Uzbekistan, while ''A. sulcidens'' is known from China ...

'' instead. However, the generic name was already preoccupied by an

ichneumon wasp The Ichneumonidae, also known as the ichneumon wasps, Darwin wasps, or ichneumonids, are a family of parasitoid wasps of the insect order Hymenoptera. They are one of the most diverse groups within the Hymenoptera with roughly 25,000 species cur ...

(subfamily

Cryptinae Cryptinae is a subfamily of wasps in the family Ichneumonidae. The family has also been called Gelinae, Hemitelinae, and Phygadeuontinae by various authorities, though the Phygadeuontinae have since been elevated to a separate subfamily. Descri ...

) with the same name. Though much of the material has since been reassigned to the genus ''

Graciliceratops ''Graciliceratops'' (meaning "slender horn") is a genus of Ceratopsia#Phylogeny, neoceratopsian dinosaurs that lived in Asia during the Late Cretaceous period. Discovery and naming The holotype, ZPAL MgD-I/156, was discovered at the Bayan Shire ...

'', a replacement name ''Microceratus'' was created by Mateus in 2008 for the type specimen.

Classification

''Microceratus'' belonged to the Ceratopsia (

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

for "horned face"), a group of herbivorous 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 Psittacoid ...

-like beaks which thrived in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

and

during the Cretaceous Period, which ended roughly 66 million years ago. All ceratopsians became extinct at the end of this era.

Diet

''Microceratus'', 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 mouthpart ...

. 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:

fern A fern (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta ) is a member of a group of vascular plants (plants with xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. The polypodiophytes include all living pteridophytes except t ...

cycad Cycads are seed plants that typically have a stout and woody (ligneous) trunk (botany), trunk with a crown (botany), crown of large, hard, stiff, evergreen and (usually) pinnate leaves. The species are dioecious, that is, individual plants o ...

s and

conifer Conifers are a group of conifer cone, cone-bearing Spermatophyte, seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the phylum, division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single ...

s. It would have used its sharp ceratopsian beak to bite off the leaves or needles.David Norman. (2001): The Big Book Of Dinosaurs. pg. 317, 318, 319 and 326, Walcome books.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q132587 Neoceratopsians Late Cretaceous dinosaurs of Asia Fossil taxa described in 2008 Taxa named by Octávio Mateus Ornithischian genera

Discovery

Classification

Diet

See also

References