''Koreaceratops'' () is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

of basal

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 ...

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 ...

discovered in

Albian The Albian is both an age (geology), age of the geologic timescale and a stage (stratigraphy), stage in the stratigraphic column. It is the youngest or uppermost subdivision of the Early Cretaceous, Early/Lower Cretaceous epoch (geology), Epoch/s ...

-age

Lower Cretaceous Lower may refer to: * ''Lower'' (album), 2025 album by Benjamin Booker * Lower (surname) * Lower Township, New Jersey *Lower Receiver (firearms) * Lower Wick Gloucestershire, England See also * Nizhny {{Disambiguation ...

rocks of

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

Discovery

It is based on KIGAM VP 200801, an articulated series of 36 caudal

vertebra Each vertebra (: vertebrae) is an irregular bone with a complex structure composed of bone and some hyaline cartilage, that make up the vertebral column or spine, of vertebrates. The proportions of the vertebrae differ according to their spina ...

e associated with partial hind limbs and

ischia Ischia ( , , ) is a volcanic island in the Tyrrhenian Sea. It lies at the northern end of the Gulf of Naples, about from the city of Naples. It is the largest of the Phlegrean Islands. Although inhabited since the Bronze Age, as a Ancient G ...

. This specimen was found in a

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

block that had been incorporated into the Tando seawall at Hwaseong City; the way the specimen is cut off suggests that more of it was present before quarrying. The seawall was built in 1994, and the bones were first brought to the attention of paleontologists in 2008, after a public official noticed them. The type specimen came from the

-aged Tando beds. ''Koreaceratops'' was described by Yuong-Nam Lee and colleagues in

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

. The genus name is a combination of "Korea" and the

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

''κέρας'' (''keras'') meaning 'horn' and ''ὄψις'' (''opsis'') meaning 'face'. The

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

is ''K. hwaseongensis'', named after Hwaseong City.

Classification

''Koreaceratops'' is notable for the tall

neural spines Each vertebra (: vertebrae) is an irregular bone with a complex structure composed of bone and some hyaline cartilage, that make up the vertebral column or spine, of vertebrates. The proportions of the vertebrae differ according to their spinal ...

on its caudal vertebrae, and for the structure of its

astragalus Astragalus may refer to: * ''Astragalus'' (plant), a large genus of herbs and small shrubs *Astragalus (bone) The talus (; Latin for ankle or ankle bone; : tali), talus bone, astragalus (), or ankle bone is one of the group of foot bones known ...

. In some of the

distal Standard anatomical terms of location are used to describe unambiguously the anatomy of humans and other animals. The terms, typically derived from Latin or Greek roots, describe something in its standard anatomical position. This position provi ...

caudal vertebrae, the neural spines are over five times the height of the vertebral centra to which they attach. Lee ''et al''. noted that several other ceratopsians also had tall neural spines on their caudals. As this trait appears in several branches of ceratopsians, Lee ''et al.'' postulated that the feature was independently evolved, perhaps as an adaptation for swimming. Lee ''et al.'' performed a

phylogenetic analysis 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 ...

and found ''Koreaceratops'' to be positioned between '' Archaeoceratops'' and more derived ceratopsians. A 2022 study however, suggests it is closer to ''

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 ...

'' than to earlier animals like ''

Psittacosaurus ''Psittacosaurus'' ( ; "parrot lizard") is a genus of extinct ceratopsian dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of what is now Asia, existing between 125 and 105 million years ago. It is notable for being the most species-rich non-avian dinosaur ...

'' and ''Archaeoceratops''. Some researchers have removed ''Koreaceratops'' from phylogenetic analyses due to the lack of skull material from the type specimen which results in a complicated resolution within neoceratopsians.

Paleobiology

An examination of the bone histology of ''Koreaceratops'' published in 2022 suggests that the type specimen was roughly eight years old when it died and did not reach physical or sexual maturity. The same study suggests that ''Koreaceratops'' lived in a semiarid environment, and that microbial erosion is responsible for the poor preservation of its distinguishing features. Thomas Holtz gave a length estimate of for this specimen.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q134260 Ceratopsia Dinosaur genera Albian dinosaurs Fossil taxa described in 2011 Dinosaurs of Asia