Dinosaurs A to Z
Leptoceratopsidae

Leptoceratops

"small horn face"

Generic ceratopsian body-plan outline
You 1.8 m (5.9 ft) tall
Leptoceratops 1.8 m (5.9 ft) long
as long as 2 people standing fingertip to fingertip
generic ceratopsian body plan, scaled to length — not a silhouette of Leptoceratops
Length
1.8 m (5.9 ft)
Period
Late Cretaceous (67.2–66.2 Mya)
Place
North America · Alberta, Canada · Montana, USA · Wyoming, USA
Food
Herbivore
Clade
Leptoceratopsidae
Leptoceratops reconstruction by Nobu Tamura (http://spinops.blogspot.com)
Reconstruction · Nobu Tamura (http://spinops.blogspot.com) (CC-BY)

Leptoceratops (meaning ‘small horn face’) is a genus of ceratopsian dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of North America. First found in Alberta in 1910, the type species Leptoceratops gracilis was named in 1914 by Barnum Brown for a partial skull and skeleton of two individuals found in the Scollard Formation of Alberta. Additional specimens found in the Scollard include one complete and two mostly complete skeletons together, uncovered in 1947 by Charles M. Sternberg. Specimens from Montana that were among the earliest referred to Leptoceratops have since been moved to their own genera Montanoceratops and Cerasinops, while new specimens of L. gracilis include bonebed remains from the Hell Creek Formation of Montana and a partial skeleton from the Lance Formation of Wyoming. Together with related taxa, Leptoceratops is the eponymous genus of the family Leptoceratopsidae.

What we know

  • Named by Brown, 1914.
  • Body length estimated at about 1.81 m.
  • Fossils found in North America and Alberta, Canada.

What we guess

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