Archaeoceratops

"ancient horned face"

You 1.8 m (5.9 ft) tall
Archaeoceratops 90 cm (3 ft) long
as long as 2 people standing fingertip to fingertip
Length
90 cm (3 ft)
Period
Early Cretaceous (125 Mya)
Place
China
Food
Herbivore
Clade
Dinosauria The clade containing all dinosaurs, terrestrial archosaurs with upright limbs.
Archaeoceratops reconstruction by Nobu Tamura (http://spinops.blogspot.com)
Reconstruction · Nobu Tamura (http://spinops.blogspot.com) (CC-BY)

Archaeoceratops, meaning “ancient horned face”, is a genus of basal neoceratopsian dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous (Aptian stage) of north central China. It appears to have been bipedal and quite small, reaching 0.9 m in length and 10 kg in body mass. It had a comparatively large head but no horns, possessing only a small bony frill projecting from the back of its head.

What we know

  • Named by Dong & Azuma, 1997.
  • Body length estimated at about 0.9 m.
  • Fossils found in China.

What we guess

The reconstruction notes for Archaeoceratops — soft tissue, color, behavior — haven't been written up yet. Only the recorded basics above are filled in so far.