🦖 Dinosaurs🦏 CeratopsianCretaceousLesser known
Psittacosaurus
Psittacosaurus mongoliensis
Exceptional Psittacosaurus fossils provide rare evidence about pigment, skin and behaviour in dinosaurs.
Image: Unknown · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
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Characteristics
- Scientific name
- Psittacosaurus mongoliensis
- Period
- Early Cretaceous (Barremian)
- Lived
- 125–120 Ma (125 million years ago)
- Diet
- Herbivore
- Habitat
- Forest, Plains
- Length (estimate)
- 2 m
- Mass (estimate)
- 20 kg
Description
Psittacosaurus was a small, bipedal herbivore with a parrot-like beak and powerful chewing muscles. Some fossils preserve scaly skin and bristle-like structures near the tail. Its diet probably consisted of plants and possibly seeds, but direct food remains are scarce. Several species are known, with differences in skull shape and body proportions.
Habitat
Wooded lake environments in East Asia.
Fossil sites
Yixian Formation, Liaoning
Yixian Formation
Cultural profile: China →
Contemporaries in the database
Sources: Psittacosaurus