| Leptoceratops Temporal range: Late Cretaceous |
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|---|---|
| Leptoceratops gracilis forelimb | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Superorder: | Dinosauria |
| Order: | Ornithischia |
| Suborder: | Cerapoda |
| Infraorder: | Ceratopsia |
| Family: | Leptoceratopsidae |
| Genus: | Leptoceratops |
| Species: | L. gracilis |
| Binomial name | |
| Leptoceratops gracilis Brown, 1914 |
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Leptoceratops (meaning 'lean-horned face' and derived from Greek 'lepto-/λεπτο-' meaning 'small', 'insignificant', 'slender', 'meagre' or 'lean', 'cerat-/κερατ-' meaning 'horn' and '-ops/ωψ' meaning face),[1] was a primitive ceratopsian dinosaur genus from the Late Cretaceous Period of what is now Western North America, at the same time as its giant relatives Triceratops and Torosaurus. Its skulls have been found in Alberta, Canada and in Wyoming. It could probably stand and run on its hind legs. Analysis of its forelimb function indicates that even though it couldn't pronate its hands, it could also walk on four legs.[2] Leptoceratops was around 2 metres (6.6 ft) long and could have weighed anywhere between 68 to 200 kilograms (150 to 440 lb).
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The first small ceratopsian named, Leptoceratops was discovered in 1910 (and described four years later), by Barnum Brown in the Red Deer Valley in Alberta, Canada. The first specimen had a part of its skull missing, however there have been later well-preserved finds by C. M. Sternberg in 1947, including one complete fossil. There has been later material found in 1978 in Bighorn Basin in northern Wyoming.
The type species is L. gracilis. In 1942, material collected in Montana was named Leptoceratops cerorhynchos but this was later renamed Montanoceratops.
Leptoceratops belonged to the Ceratopsia (the name is Ancient Greek for 'horned face'), a group of herbivorous dinosaurs with parrot-like beaks that thrived in North America and Asia during the Cretaceous Period. Within this group, it has been placed either in Protoceratopsidae or its own family Leptoceratopsidae.
Leptoceratops, like all ceratopsians, was a herbivore. During the Cretaceous Period, 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.