''Breviceratops'' (meaning "short horned face") is a genus of protoceratopsid

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic Geological period, period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the #Evolutio ...

that lived during the

Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the more recent of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''cre ...

in what is now the Barun Goyot Formation,

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 ...

Discovery and naming

Cretaceous-aged dinosaur fossil localities of Mongolia

The first fossils were discovered during the 1960s by the Polish expedition to the

Nemegt Basin The Nemegt Basin is a geographical area in the northwestern Gobi Desert, in Ömnögovi Province, southern Mongolia. It is known locally as the "Valley of the Dragons", since it is a Bone bed, source of many fossil finds, including dinosaurs, dino ...

of Gobi Desert. The specimens were originally described by Teresa Maryańska and Halszka Osmólska in 1975 and named as a second species of ''

Protoceratops ''Protoceratops'' (; ) is a genus of small protoceratopsid dinosaurs that lived in Asia during the Late Cretaceous, around 75 to 71 million years ago. The genus ''Protoceratops'' includes two species: ''P. andrewsi'' and the larger ''P. hellenik ...

'', ''Protoceratops kozlowskii'', the specific name honouring Polish paleontologist Roman Kozłowski. 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 ...

, ZPAL MgD-I/117, was found in the Khulsan locality of the Barun Goyot Formation dating from the Late

Campanian The Campanian is the fifth of six ages of the Late Cretaceous epoch on the geologic timescale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). In chronostratigraphy, it is the fifth of six stages in the Upper Cretaceous Series. Campa ...

. It consists of a partial juvenile postcranial skeleton with skull. Other specimens were referred from the Hermiin Tsav and Khulsan localities: MgD-I/116, a skull and lower jaws of a small juvenile; MgD-I/118, fragmentary postcrania and lower jaws of a juvenile; MgD-I/119, a dentary and three neural arches; MgD-I/20, two dentaries and loose teeth; MgD-I/21, a maxilla fragment with four teeth of a juvenile; and MgD-I/22, teeth. They were then renamed as a separate genus, ''Breviceratops'', by Sergei Mikhailovich Kurzanov in 1990, the generic name combining the

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

''brevis'' (meaning short), with a reference to the

Ceratopsia Ceratopsia or Ceratopia ( or ; Ancient Greek, Greek: "horned faces") is a group of herbivore, herbivorous, beaked dinosaurs that thrived in what are now North America, Asia and Europe, during the Cretaceous Period (geology), Period, although ance ...

. Kurzanov also referred an additional number of fossils from Hermiin Tsav, which is the type locality of ''

Bagaceratops ''Bagaceratops'' (meaning "small-horned face") is a genus of small protoceratopsid dinosaurs that lived in Asia during the Late Cretaceous, around 72 to 71 million years ago. ''Bagaceratops'' remains have been reported from the Barun Goyot Forma ...

'', a coeval protoceratopsid. The Hermiin Tsav material has been noted as closely resembling ''Bagaceratops'', which has led to the proposal that ''Breviceratops'' is a juvenile stage and synonym of this protoceratopsid. However, the holotype from Khulsan has primitive premaxillary teeth, a feature inconsistent with the derived morphology of ''Bagaceratops''. Most of these referred specimens have been re-identified as belonging to ''Bagaceratops'', and ''Breviceratops'' is now restricted to the holotype, plus ZPAL MgD-I/116.

Description

''Breviceratops'' had a

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 ...

combining primitive and derived traits, such as premaxillary teeth (also shared with ''Protoceratops andrewsi'') and an

antorbital fenestra An antorbital fenestra (plural: fenestrae) is an opening in the skull that is in front of the eye sockets. This skull character is largely associated with Archosauriformes, archosauriforms, first appearing during the Triassic Period. Among Extant ...

(also shared with ''Bagaceratops''), which is an opening of the located in front of the eye socket. This fenestra was distinct from ''Bagaceratops'' in that it was narrow to straight-shaped. The skull of ''Breviceratops'' ended in a moderatively pronounced neck frill formed by the and , a common trait among protoceratopsids and overall ceratopsians.

Classification

''Breviceratops'' belonged to the

, a group of herbivorous dinosaurs with

parrot Parrots (Psittaciformes), also known as psittacines (), are birds with a strong curved beak, upright stance, and clawed feet. They are classified in four families that contain roughly 410 species in 101 genus (biology), genera, found mostly in ...

-like beaks which thrived in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

and

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

during the Cretaceous period. It has been assigned to the

Protoceratopsidae Protoceratopsidae is a family of basal (primitive) ceratopsians from the Late Cretaceous period. Although ceratopsians have been found all over the world, protoceratopsids are only definitively known from Cretaceous strata in Asia, with most spec ...

in 2019 by Łukasz Czepiński, were ''Bagaceratops'' and ''Protoceratops'' appear to be close relatives. Below are the proposed relationships among Protoceratopsidae by Czepiński:

References

External links

* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q138061 Protoceratopsidae Dinosaur genera Maastrichtian dinosaurs Baruungoyot Formation Dinosaurs of Mongolia Fossil taxa described in 1990 Fossil taxa described in 1975 Taxa named by Sergei Kurzanov Taxa named by Teresa Maryańska Taxa named by Halszka Osmólska

Discovery and naming

Description

Classification

See also

References

External links