Platyceratops

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Platyceratops
Conservation status
Fossil
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Sauropsida Superorder: Dinosauria Order: Ornithischia Infraorder: Ceratopsia Genus: Platyceratops
Species
Platyceratops tatarinovi

Platyceratops is a dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous, during the Campanian Age, about 75-72 million years ago. Its fossils have been found in Mongolia. Its skull is larger than Bagaceratops; it has been referred to Bagaceratopidae or the Neoceratopsia. The name platyceratops is derived from Greek, and means "flat horned face".

The type specimen is Platyceratops tatarinovi, described by Aliafanov in 2003.

Contents 1 Classification 2 Diet 3 References 4 Links

[edit] Classification

Platyceratops 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.

It may be only a variant of Bagaceratops.^[1]

[edit] Diet

Platyceratops, 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

• http://www.users.qwest.net/~jstweet1/ceratopia.htm
• http://dml.cmnh.org/2004Sep/msg00359.html

[edit] Links

• Platyceratops in the Dino Directory