Zhuchengceratops

Zhuchengceratops Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, 70Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Skull and mandible
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Superorder:	Dinosauria
Order:	Ornithischia
Infraorder:	Ceratopsia
Family:	Leptoceratopsidae
Genus:	Zhuchengceratops Xu et al., 2010
Species
Z. inexpectus Xu et al., 2010 (type)

Diagram of the holotype

Restoration

Zhuchengceratops (meaning "horned face from Zhucheng") is a genus of herbivorous ceratopsian dinosaur. It is a derived leptoceratopsid ceratopsian which lived during the Late Cretaceous period in what is now Kugou, Zhucheng County, China. It is known from a partial articulated skeleton including vertebrae, ribs, teeth, and parts of the skull and mandibles. The fossils were recovered from the Wangshi Group.^[1] This genus was named by Xing Xu, Kebai Wang, Xijin Zhao, Corwin Sullivan and Shuqing Chen in 2010, and the type species is Zhuchengceratops inexpectus.^[1]

The recovered specimen of Zhuchengceratops likely represents an adult, and is slightly larger than most adults of the similar ceratopsian Leptoceratops, which was around 2 meters in length. Zhuchengceratops had a particularly massive and deep 50 cm-long mandible that is also thin transversely. This and a number of other autapomorphies unique to the genus lend it significance for increasing the morphological disparity and the taxonomic diversity of the Leptoceratopsidae. As the third leptoceratopsid from Asia, this find exhibits the coexistence and radiation of two closely related clades, whose differences in jaw and tooth adaptation may represent different feeding strategies.^[1]

References