Graciliceratops

Graciliceratops
Live reconstruction of Graciliceratops
Temporal occurrence
Upper Cretaceous ( Santonium to Campanium )
86.3 to 72 million years
Locations
Mongolia
Systematics
Cerapoda Marginocephalia Ceratopsia Neoceratopsia Protoceratopsidae Graciliceratops
Scientific name
Graciliceratops
Sereno , 2000
Art
G. mongoliensis Sereno, 2000

Graciliceratops is a genus of the bird pelvic dinosaur (Ornithischia) from the group of Ceratopsia .

From graciliceratops an incomplete skeleton is not yet known. His skull, like that of all higher Ceratopsia, wore a neck shield made of parietal and scaly bones , the edges of which were remarkably thin. Another characteristic of this dinosaur is that the lower leg was significantly longer than the upper leg , which could indicate a fast runner. Like all ceratopsians, it was herbivorous.

The fossil remains of Graciliceratops come from the Mongolian province of Ömnö-Gobi . The finds were originally attributed to Microceratus (formerly Microceratops ). The genus was first described in 2000 . The generic name is derived from the Latin gracilis (= "slim") and the Greek keratops (= "horny face"), a common part of the Ceratopsier name. The type and only known species is G. mongoliensis . The finds are dated in the Upper Cretaceous ( Santonium to Campanium ) to an age of 86 to 72 million years.

Graciliceratops is systematically incorporated into the Protoceratopsidae within the Ceratopsia .

literature

• You Hailu, Peter Dodson : Basal Ceratopsia. In: David B. Weishampel , Peter Dodson, Halszka Osmólska (eds.): The Dinosauria . 2nd edition. University of California Press, Berkeley CA et al. 2004, ISBN 0-520-24209-2 , pp. 478-493, digitized version (PDF; 807.25 kB) .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Dougal Dixon : The World Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs & Prehistoric Creatures. Lorenz, London 2007, ISBN 978-0-7548-1730-7 , p. 360.