Leptoceratops

Taxobox
name = "Leptoceratops"
status = fossil
fossil_range = Late Cretaceous


image_width = 225px
image_caption ="Leptoceratops", by Peter Trusler, 1999
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Sauropsida
superordo = Dinosauria
ordo = Ornithischia
subordo = Cerapoda
infraordo = Ceratopsia
familia = Leptoceratopsidae
genus = "Leptoceratops"
species = "L. gracilis"
binomial_authority = Brown, 1914
binomial = "Leptoceratops gracilis"

"Leptoceratops" (meaning 'lean-horned face' and derived from Greek lepto-/λεπτο- meaning 'small', 'insignificant', 'slender', 'meagre' or 'lean', cerat-/κερατ- meaning 'horn' and -ops/ωψ meaning face) was a primitive ceratopsian dinosaur genus from the Late Cretaceous Period of what is now Western North America, at the same time as its giant relatives "Triceratops" and "Torosaurus". Its skulls have been found in Alberta, Canada and in Wyoming. It could probably stand and run on its hind legs. "Leptoceratops" was around 2 meters long and could have weighed anywhere between 68 kilograms and even 200 kilograms.

Discovery and Species

The first small ceratopsian named, "Leptoceratops" was discovered in 1910 (and described four years later), by Barnum Brown in the Red Deer Valley in Alberta, Canada. The first specimen had a part of its skull missing, however there have been later well-preserved finds by C. M. Sternberg in 1947, including one complete fossil (a very rare find indeed). There has been later material found in 1978 in Bighorn Basin in northern Wyoming.

The type species is "L. gracilis". In 1942, material collected in Montana was named "Leptoceratops cerorhynchos" but this was later renamed "Montanoceratops".

Classification

"Leptoceratops" belonged to the Ceratopsia (the name is Ancient Greek for 'horned face'), a group of herbivorous dinosaurs with parrot-like beaks that thrived in North America and Asia during the Cretaceous Period. Within this group, it has been placed either in Protoceratopsidae or its own family Leptoceratopsidae.

Diet

"Leptoceratops", like all Ceratopsians, was a herbivore. During the Cretaceous Period, flowering plants were "geographically limited on the landscape", so it is likely that this dinosaur fed on the predominant plants of the era: ferns, cycads and conifers. It would have used its sharp Ceratopsian beak to bite off the leaves or needles.

References

* Dodson, P. (1996). "The Horned Dinosaurs". Princeton University Press, Pinceton, New Jersey, pp. xiv-346
*cite book|author=Liddell & Scott|year=1980|title=Greek-English Lexicon, Abridged Edition |publisher=Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK|id=ISBN 0-19-910207-4

External links

* [http://www.dinoruss.com/de_4/5a7926f.htm "Leptoceratops" in The Dinosaur Encyclopaedia] at Dino Russ's Lair
* [http://www.users.qwest.net/~jstweet1/ceratopia.htm Ceratopsia] at "Thescelosaurus"!