| Microceratus Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, 90 Ma |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Superorder: | Dinosauria |
| Order: | †Ornithischia |
| Suborder: | †Ceratopsia |
| Genus: | †Microceratus Mateus, 2008 |
| Species: | †M. gobiensis |
| Binomial name | |
| Microceratus gobiensis (Bohlin, 1953) |
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| Synonyms | |
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Microceratops Bohlin, 1953 (preoccupied by Seyrig, 1952) |
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Microceratus (meaning "small-horned") is a genus of small ceratopsian dinosaur that lived in the Cretaceous period in Asia. It walked on two legs, had short front arms, a characteristic ceratopsian frill and beak-like mouth, and was maybe 2 feet (0.6 m) long. It was one of the first ceratopsians, or horned dinosaurs, along with Psittacosaurus in Mongolia.
The type species, "Microceratops" gobiensis, was first described by Bohlin in 1953. However, the generic name was already preoccupied by an ichneumon wasp (subfamily Gelinae) with the same name. Though much of the material has since been reassigned to the genus Graciliceratops, a replacement name Microceratus was created by Mateus in 2008 for the type specimen.[1]
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Microceratus belonged to the Ceratopsia (the name is Ancient 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.
Microceratus, 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.
As Microceratops, it was featured in Disney's Dinosaur and Michael Crichton's novel Jurassic Park.