Protoceratops
Protoceratops andrewsi
Protoceratops is one of the most common dinosaurs of the Gobi and is important for research on growth and nesting behaviour.
Image: Tadek Kurpaski from London, Poland · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
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Characteristics
- Scientific name
- Protoceratops andrewsi
- Period
- Late Cretaceous (Campanian)
- Lived
- 75–71 Ma (75 million years ago)
- Diet
- Herbivore
- Habitat
- Desert, Plains
- Length (estimate)
- 2 m
- Mass (estimate)
- 100 kg
Description
Protoceratops was a small quadrupedal ceratopsian with a beak, a low neck frill and no large facial horns. Its strong jaws probably processed tough desert plants. Fossils of different ages and nests provide better evidence of growth and reproduction than is available for many dinosaurs. The famous fighting fossil with Velociraptor preserves a moment of direct interaction.
Habitat
Dunes and oases in the dry interior of the Gobi.
Fossil sites
Flaming Cliffs, Ömnögovi
Djadochta Formation
Contemporaries in the database
Sources: Protoceratops