Prenoceratops

Taxobox
name = "Prenoceratops"
fossil_range = fossil range|83|74(Late Creatceous)

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image_width = 200px
image_caption =
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Sauropsida
superordo = Dinosauria
ordo = Ornithischia
infraordo = Ceratopsia
familia = Leptoceratopsidae
subfamilia =
genus = "Prenoceratops"
genus_authority = Chinnery (2004)
subdivision_ranks = Species
subdivision = "P. pieganensis" Chinnery, 2004

"Prenoceratops", (meaning 'bent or prone-horned face' and derived from Greek "prene-/πρηνη-" meaning 'bent forwards' or 'prone', "cerat-/κερατ-" meaning 'horn' and "-ops/ωψ" meaning 'face') is a genus of dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Period. Its fossils have been found in the Two Medicine Formation in the present-day U.S. state of Montana. It lived in the Campanian, between 83 million and 74 million years ago.

Discovery and Species

"Prenoceratops" was first described by Brenda J. Chinnery in 2004. It is unusual in that it is the only basal neoceratopsian known from a bonebed.

"Prenoceratops" Species
*"P. pieganensis" (type)

Classification

"Prenoceratops" belonged to the Ceratopsia (which name is derived from Ancient Greek, meaning 'horned face'), a group of herbivorous dinosaurs with parrot-like beaks, which thrived in North America and Asia during the Cretaceous Period. It is closely related to "Leptoceratops", which it antedates by several million years. It is characterized by a lower, more sloping head than that of "Leptoceratops"

Diet

"Prenoceratops", 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.vertpaleo.org/jvp/24-572-590.html (online abstract of the preceding article)

*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.users.qwest.net/~jstweet1/ceratopia.htm