Microceratus
Extinct genus of dinosaurs
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Microceratus (meaning "small-horned") is a genus of small ceratopsian dinosaur that lived in the Cretaceous period of Mongolia. It walked on two legs, had short front arms, a characteristic ceratopsian frill and beak-like mouth, and was around 60 cm (2.0 ft) long.[1] It was one of the most primitive ceratopsians, or horned dinosaurs, along with Psittacosaurus, which was also discovered in Mongolia.
| Microceratus Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, | |
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| Life restoration | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | †Ornithischia |
| Clade: | †Ceratopsia |
| Clade: | †Neoceratopsia |
| Genus: | †Microceratus Mateus, 2008 |
| Type species | |
| †Microceratops gobiensis Bohlin, 1953 | |
| Other species | |
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Discovery
The type species, Microceratops gobiensis, was first described by Bohlin in 1953, and so was the second species, M. sulcidens, which may belong to Asiaceratops instead.[2] However, the generic name was already preoccupied by an ichneumon wasp (subfamily Cryptinae) with the same name. Though much of the material has since been reassigned to the genus Graciliceratops, a replacement name Microceratus was created by Mateus in 2008 for the type specimen.[3]
Classification
Microceratus belonged to the Ceratopsia (Ancient Greek for "horned face"), a group of herbivorous dinosaurs with parrot-like beaks which thrived in North America and Asia during the Cretaceous Period,[4] which ended roughly 66 million years ago. All ceratopsians became extinct at the end of this era.
Diet
Microceratus, 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.[5]
