Ceratopsia: Encyclopedia - Ceratopsia

Ceratopsia

Conservation status: Fossil

The Ceratopsia (the name is Greek for "horned face") are a group of herbivorous, beaked dinosaurs which thrived in North America and Asia during the Cretaceous. They include the bipedal Psittacosauridae, (some of which bore elaborate, porcupine-like spines), and the quadrupedal Protoceratopsidae and Ceratopsidae, characterized by horns and frills. The frills may have begun as sites for muscle attachment, to later become expanded for display and/or defense.

The group appears to be Asian in origin; psittacosaurs first appear in the Early Cretaceous of China and the Protoceratopsidae are most diverse in Asia, (although a few species of basal neoceratopsians are known from North America as well). The enormous Ceratopsidae are exclusively found in the Late Cretaceous of Western North America, where they evolved large size and elaborate horn and frill morphologies. Ceratopsians were an important part of Mesosoic terrestrial ecosystems: Protoceratops is one of the most abundant dinosaurs in the Late Cretaceous of Mongolia, while Ceratopsidae are the most abundant dinosaurs in the latest Cretaceous of North America.

Some of the better known ceratopsians include Psittacosaurus, Protoceratops, Triceratops, Torosaurus, Centrosaurus, and Pachyrhinosaurus.

Category: Ceratopsids

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Ceratopsia", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki