Liaoceratops
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| Liaoceratops Fossil range: Early Cretaceous |
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| Liaoceratops yanzigouensis Xu, 2002 |
Liaoceratops, meaning "Liao Horned Face", is a newly discovered dinosaur believed to be an early cousin to the horned ceratopsians. It lived in the early Cretaceous, some 130 million years ago. It was discovered in China by a team of American and Chinese scientists. Liaoceratops was much smaller than its later cousins, but offers a glimpse into the early evolution of one of the most enigmatic groups of dinosaurs.
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[edit] Discoveries and species
Liaoceratops was discovered in the famous Liaoning Province of China, where several fossils of feathered dinosaurs have also been collected. These beds have also yielded fossil insects, fossils of ginkgo trees, and many other dinosaurs, including the early troodontid Sinovenator, also described by Makovicky earlier in 2005. In the future, Makovicky hopes to continue his field work in the Liaoning Province.
"This area is yielding extremely important information on the evolution of dinosaurs, mammals, insects, and flowering plants. I hope to find even more primitive specimens than Liaoceratops," he said.
Liaoceratops Species
- L. yanzigouensis
[edit] Classification
Liaoceratops is rather small, weighing an estimated seven pounds and possessing only incomplete traces of horns and a frill, structures that characterized later ceratopsians. However, these features help understand a major split in the evolution of ceratopsians. Long before the familiar Triceratops evolved in North America, the ceratopsian lineage branched into two lines: the neoceratopsians, the main lineage that includes the recognizable horned and frilled forms, and the psittacosaurids, a radiation of smaller, parrot-beaked dinosaurs.
"Liaoceratops gives us a great window on the early evolution of horned dinosaurs and tells us that Triceratops and its relatives evolved from very small Asian ceratopsians. This small, primitive dinosaur is actually more interesting to science in many ways than its larger, more famous relatives because it teaches us more about evolution. Basal dinosaurs are critical because they help us to tie different groups of dinosaurs together and map out evolutionary patterns," said Peter Makovicky, Curator of Dinosaurs at the Field Museum in Chicago and a co-author of the paper describing the dinosaur.
"Liaoceratops establishes that this split occurred no later than the earliest part of the Cretaceous Period. Also, it indicates that ceratopsians acquired some of their distinctive features earlier and more rapidly than was previously recognized," Makovicky said.
[edit] Horns and frill
Ironically, the diminutive Liaoceratops may also help scientists understand the roles of horns and frills in ceratopsian dinosaurs. First thought of as offensive or defensive organs, these structures are seen by many paleontologists today as display devices used in species recognition and to attract mates. Liaoceratops has a small horn facing sideways under each of its eyes. As this structure is quite small and light, Makovicky believes that it was a display organ and had no purpose in defense.
[edit] References
- Xu, X., Makovicky, P.J., Wang, X, Norell, M.A. and You, H. (2002). "A ceratopsian dinosaur from China and the early evolution of Ceratopsia.". Nature 416: 314–317. doi:.
