Udanoceratops
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| Udanoceratops Fossil range: Late Cretaceous |
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Udanoceratops (meaning 'Udan horn face', derived from the Greek ceras/κέρας meaning 'horn' and -ops/ωψ meaning 'face') is a genus of ceratopsian dinosaur. It lived during the Late Cretaceous Period in the late Santonian or early Campanian faunal stages. Its fossils were found in Mongolia.
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[edit] Discovery and Species
Udanoceratops was first described by Kurzanov in 1992, from a large skull, which was 60 centimeters long (24 in) and moderately well preserved. It appears to be the largest bipedal neoceratopsian found to date. The skull has very little horn or frill and the animal is estimated at about 4 meters long (13 ft). The type species is U. tschizhovi.
[edit] Classification
Udanoceratops belonged to the Ceratopsia (the name is derived Greek meaning 'horned face'), a group of herbivorous dinosaurs with parrot-like beaks which thrived in North America and Asia during the Cretaceous Period. Within the order, Chinnery places it within the Leptoceratopsidae, as the only Asian representative, along with the North American Leptoceratops, Montanoceratops and Prenoceratops.
[edit] Diet
Udanoceratops, like all ceratopsians, was a herbivore. During the Cretaceous, flowering plants were "geographically limited on the landscape", 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
- Dodson, P. (1996). The Horned Dinosaurs. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey. ISBN 0-691-05900-4.
- Kurzanov, S.M. (1992). "A giant protoceratopsid from the Upper Cretaceous of Mongolia (in Russian)". Palaeontological Journal: 81–93.
