Sunday 11 December 2011

Protoceratops

Protoceratops (Greek for "before the horned faces"); pronounced PRO-toe-SER

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Habitat:

Scrublands and deserts of AsiaHistorical Period:
Late Cretaceous (85-70 million years ago)

Size and Weight:

About 6 feet long and 400 pounds

Diet:

Plants

Distinguishing Characteristics:

Blunt horn; humped tail; large frill over face

About Protoceratops:

Protoceratops is one of those dinosaurs that people think was a lot bigger than it actually was: today, it's often mistakenly pictured as a giant, but this horned dinosaur was only about three feet high (in its quadrupedal stance) and weighed in the neighborhood of 400 pounds---ah-tops
meaning Hulk Hogan might have been able to wrestle one to the ground. It's believed that large herds of these pig-sized ceratopsians roamed the plains and woodlands of middle Cretaceous Asia, where they were preyed on by hungry tyrannosaurs and raptors. (See also 10 Facts About Protoceratops.)
As tiny as it was compared to later herbivorous dinosaurs, Protoceratops lay near the trunk of a mighty dinosaur evolutionary tree, giving rise to the giant ceratopsians of the late Cretaceous period--including such famous and familiar dinosaurs as Triceratops, Centrosaurus and Styracosaurus. However, Protoceratops wasn't the most "basal" ceratopsian; that honor probably belongs to the much earlier Psittacosaurus, if not an even earlier genus.
Protoceratops has earned a place in the paleontology hall of fame for a rare fossil find: the tangled skeletons of a Protoceratops and a Velociraptor, who were presumably in mid-fight when they were both buried together by a sudden sandstorm.

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