Turanoceratops

Taxobox
name = "Turanoceratops"
fossil_range = Late Cretaceous


image_width = 200px
image_caption =
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Sauropsida
superordo = Dinosauria
ordo = Ornithischia
subordo = Cerapoda
infraordo = Ceratopsia
familia = Ceratopsidae
genus = "Turanoceratops"
genus_authority = Nessov "et al", 1989
subdivision_ranks=Species
subdivision=
*"T. tardabilis" Nessov "et al.", 1989 (type)

"Turanoceratops" ("Turan horn face") is a genus of ceratopsian dinosaur. It lived during the Late Cretaceous in what is now Uzbekistan.

Classification

"Turanoceratops" belonged to the Ceratopsia (the name is Greek for "horned face"), a group of herbivorous dinosaurs with parrot-like beaks which thrived in North America and Asia during the Cretaceous Period, which ended roughly 65 million years ago. All ceratopsians became extinct at the end of this era.

Diet

"Turanoceratops", like all ceratopsians, was a herbivore. During the Cretaceous, flowering plants were "geographically limited on the landscape", and 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

* [http://www.dinoruss.com/de_4/5a78c63.htm "Turanoceratops" in The Dinosaur Encyclopaedia] at Dino Russ's Lair
* [http://www.users.qwest.net/~jstweet1/ceratopia.htm Ceratopsia] at "Thescelosaurus"!