''Beg tse'' (after the Himalayan war deity Beg-tse) is an extinct species of

neoceratopsian Ceratopsia or Ceratopia ( or ; Greek: "horned faces") is a group of herbivorous, beaked dinosaurs that thrived in what are now North America, Asia and Europe, during the Cretaceous Period, although ancestral forms lived earlier, in the Late Ju ...

dinosaurs from the early

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 143.1 to 66 mya (unit), million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era (geology), Era, as well as the longest. At around 77.1 million years, it is the ...

Ulaanoosh Formation of Mongolia. ''B. tse'' is the only species in the genus ''Beg'', known from a partial

skull The skull, or cranium, is typically a bony enclosure around the brain of a vertebrate. In some fish, and amphibians, the skull is of cartilage. The skull is at the head end of the vertebrate. In the human, the skull comprises two prominent ...

and very fragmentary

postcrania The postcranium ("behind the cranium"; plural: postcrania) or postcranial skeleton in zoology and vertebrate paleontology is the skeleton apart from the skull. The postcranium encompasses the axial skeleton, which includes the entirety of the verte ...

. It represents the most basal neoceratopsian currently known.

Discovery and naming

The

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

, IGM 100/3652, was discovered in 2015 near the town of Tsogt-Ovoo in the

Ömnögovi Province Ömnögovi ( ''Ömnögovǐ'', ''South Gobi'') is an aimag (province) of Mongolia, located in the south of the country, in the Gobi Desert. Ömnögovi is Mongolia's largest aimag. The capital is Dalanzadgad. The province is rich in mineral dep ...

Mongolia Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...

. Described from the Ulaanoosh Formation, the specimen is dated to 113 to 94 million years ago, at the boundary of the

Lower Lower may refer to: * ''Lower'' (album), 2025 album by Benjamin Booker *Lower (surname) *Lower Township, New Jersey *Lower Receiver (firearms) *Lower Wick Lower Wick is a small hamlet located in the county of Gloucestershire, England. It is sit ...

and Upper

. ''Beg'' is named after Beg-tse, a Himalayan deity who is the god of war in Mongolian culture. The deity is often depicted with a rugose face and/or body, similar to the appearance of the preserved skull of the dinosaur.

Description

Based on the size of the skull, about long, ''Beg'' was most likely a medium-sized basal ceratopsian, similar in size to ''

Yinlong ''Yinlong'' (, meaning "hidden dragon") is a genus of basal ceratopsian dinosaur from the Late Jurassic Period of China. By far the earliest known ceratopsian, it was a small, primarily bipedal herbivore. Discovery and species A coalition of ...

'' and ''

Liaoceratops ''Liaoceratops'', meaning "Liaoning horned face", is a ceratopsian dinosaur believed to be an early relative of the horned ceratopsids. It lived in the Early Cretaceous, 126 million years ago. It was discovered in China by a team of American and ...

.'' It shows transitional features between basal ceratopsians and other neoceratopsians because it is

phylogenetically In biology, phylogenetics () is the study of the evolutionary history of life using observable characteristics of organisms (or genes), which is known as phylogenetic inference. It infers the relationship among organisms based on empirical data ...

intermediate between them. Other fossil material, though fragmentary, includes a

rib In vertebrate anatomy, ribs () are the long curved bones which form the rib cage, part of the axial skeleton. In most tetrapods, ribs surround the thoracic cavity, enabling the lungs to expand and thus facilitate breathing by expanding the ...

, partial left

scapula The scapula (: scapulae or scapulas), also known as the shoulder blade, is the bone that connects the humerus (upper arm bone) with the clavicle (collar bone). Like their connected bones, the scapulae are paired, with each scapula on either side ...

, partial right

ischium The ischium (; : is ...

, and many bone fragments that cannot be identified.

Paleoecology

''Beg'' is known from the Ulaanoosh Formation of southern Mongolia.

Sauropods Sauropoda (), whose members are known as sauropods (; from '' sauro-'' + '' -pod'', 'lizard-footed'), is a clade of saurischian ('lizard-hipped') dinosaurs. Sauropods had very long necks, long tails, small heads (relative to the rest of their b ...

turtle Turtles are reptiles of the order (biology), order Testudines, characterized by a special turtle shell, shell developed mainly from their ribs. Modern turtles are divided into two major groups, the Pleurodira (side necked turtles) and Crypt ...

s and

dinosaur egg Dinosaur eggs are the organic vessels in which a dinosaurs, dinosaur embryo develops. When the first scientifically documented remains of non-avian dinosaurs were being described in England during the 1820s, it was presumed that dinosaurs had la ...

s assigned to '' Parafaveoloolithus'' sp. are also known from the formation.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q99196841 Ceratopsia Dinosaur species Albian dinosaurs Cenomanian dinosaurs Fossil taxa described in 2020 Dinosaurs of Mongolia

Discovery and naming

Description

Paleoecology

See also

References