Kulceratops

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Kulceratops
Conservation status
Fossil
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Sauropsida Superorder: Dinosauria Order: Ornithischia Suborder: Cerapoda Infraorder: Ceratopsia Family: Archaeoceratopsidae Genus: Kulceratops Nessov, 1995
Species
K. kulensis Nessov, 1995 (type)

Kulceratops is a genus of ceratopsian dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous. It lived in the late Albian stage. It is one of the few ceratopsians known from this period. However, the fossils from this genus have been sparse: only tooth fragments have been found so far.

The type species is Kulceratops kulensis. It was first described by Nessov in 1995. It is considered a nomen dubium. Its fossils were found in central Asia. The Archaeoceratopidae family was created specifically for this basal ceratopsian.

[edit] Classification

Kulceratops belonged to the Ceratopsia (the name is Greek for "horned face"), a group of herbivorous dinosaurs with parrot-like beaks which thrived in North America and Asia during the Cretaceous Period, which ended roughly 65 million years ago. All ceratopsians became extinct at the end of this era.

[edit] Diet

Kulceratops, 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.

[edit] References

• Kulceratops at Thescelosaurus
• Kulceratops at the Dinosaur Encyclopedia