Mosaiceratops azumai
You 1.8 m (5.9 ft) tall
Mosaiceratops 1 m (3.3 ft) long
as long as 2 people standing fingertip to fingertip
- Length
- 1 m (3.3 ft)
- Period
- Late Cretaceous (94–72 Mya)
- Place
- China
- Food
- Herbivore
- Clade
- Dinosauria The clade containing all dinosaurs, terrestrial archosaurs with upright limbs.
Mosaiceratops is a genus of ceratopsian dinosaur that lived in the upper Cretaceous Xiaguan Formation in what is now the Henan Province of China. It was described by Zheng, Jin, and Xu in 2015 as the type species Mosaiceratops azumai. Although phylogenetic analyses have found it to be the basalmost neoceratopsian, the authors noted that several features in the premaxilla and nasal bones are shared with Psittacosaurus, indicating that neoceratopsians evolved premaxillary teeth twice and that the latter is not as primitive as previously thought.
What we know
- Named by Zheng, Jin & Xu, 2015.
- Body length estimated at about 1 m.
- Fossils found in China.
What we guess
The reconstruction notes for Mosaiceratops — soft tissue, color, behavior — haven't been written up yet. Only the recorded basics above are filled in so far.