''Turanoceratops'' ("

Turan Turan (; ; , , ) is a historical region in Central Asia. The term is of Iranian origin and may refer to a particular prehistoric human settlement, a historic geographical region, or a culture. The original Turanians were an Iranian tribe of th ...

horned face") 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 herbivorous

ceratopsian 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 ...

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 ...

from the late

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 ...

Bissekty Formation The Bissekty Formation (sometimes referred to as Bissekt) is a formation (geology), geologic formation and Lagerstätte which outcrop, crops out in the Kyzyl Kum desert of Uzbekistan, and dates to the Late Cretaceous Period (geology), Period. Laid ...

Uzbekistan , image_flag = Flag of Uzbekistan.svg , image_coat = Emblem of Uzbekistan.svg , symbol_type = Emblem of Uzbekistan, Emblem , national_anthem = "State Anthem of Uzbekistan, State Anthem of the Republ ...

. The fossils dated from the mid-late

Turonian The Turonian is, in the International Commission on Stratigraphy, ICS' geologic timescale, the second age (geology), age in the Late Cretaceous epoch (geology), Epoch, or a stage (stratigraphy), stage in the Upper Cretaceous series (stratigraphy), ...

stage, roughly 90 million years ago. The skull bore a pair of long brow horns like those seen in the Ceratopsidae, although ''Turanoceratops'' appears to have been transitional between earlier ceratopsians and ceratopsids, and not a ceratopsid itself.

Discovery and naming

From the 1920s onwards, Soviet scientists discovered fragmentary fossils near Dzharakuduk in the district Navoi Viloyat, leading them to the conclusion that some ceratopsid must have been present. In 1988,

paleontologist Paleontology, also spelled as palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure geolo ...

Lev Aleksandrovich Nesov based on these published the name ''Turanoceratops tardabilis'', but did not provide a description so that for the time being it remained a ''

nomen nudum In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, a ''nomen nudum'' ('naked name'; plural ''nomina nuda'') is a designation which looks exactly like a scientific name of an organism, and may have originally been intended to be one, but it has not been published ...

''. In 1989, Nesov, L.F. Kaznysjkina and Gennady Olegovich Cherepanov validly named 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 ...

''Turanoceratops tardabilis''. The generic name is a combination of ''Turan'', an old Persian name for

Turkestan Turkestan,; ; ; ; also spelled Turkistan, is a historical region in Central Asia corresponding to the regions of Transoxiana and East Turkestan (Xinjiang). The region is located in the northwest of modern day China and to the northwest of its ...

, the general region of the finds, and ~ceratops, "horned face", a usual suffix in ceratopian names. The

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

means "retarding" in

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 ...

, referring to the protracted research. 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 ...

, CCMGE No. 251/12457, consists of a damaged left

maxilla In vertebrates, the maxilla (: maxillae ) is the upper fixed (not fixed in Neopterygii) bone of the jaw formed from the fusion of two maxillary bones. In humans, the upper jaw includes the hard palate in the front of the mouth. The two maxil ...

, the tooth-bearing upper jaw bone. Other fossils have been referred but some of these later were proven to have belonged to other types of dinosaur. A braincase (specimen CCGME 628/12457) was shown to be of a

sauropod 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 ...

. The material includes postorbitals with brow horn cores, a maxilla, teeth, a predentary and limb elements. In 2004, Peter Dodson considered it a ''

nomen dubium In binomial nomenclature, a ''nomen dubium'' (Latin for "doubtful name", plural ''nomina dubia'') is a scientific name that is of unknown or doubtful application. Zoology In case of a ''nomen dubium,'' it may be impossible to determine whether a ...

'', but in 2009

Hans-Dieter Sues Hans-Dieter Sues (born 1956) is a German-born American palaeontologist who is a Senior Research Geologist and Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at the National Museum of Natural History of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. Career ...

and Alexander Averianov concluded that it was a valid

taxon In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; : taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular name and ...

Description

''Turanoceratops'' was a relatively small animal. In 2010,

Gregory S. Paul Gregory Scott Paul (born December 24, 1954) is an American freelance researcher, author and illustrator who works in paleontology. He is best known for his work and research on theropoda, theropod dinosaurs and his detailed illustrations, both l ...

estimated its length at and its weight at . Sues and Averianov in 2009 determined some typically basal traits, indicating a lower position in the evolutionary tree, and some more derived traits, showing a higher position. Basal traits are the variably developed secondary ridges on the tooth crowns and the possession of just two or three teeth per tooth position. Derived traits, relative to the more basal ''

Zuniceratops ''Zuniceratops'' ('Zuni-horned face') is a genus of ceratopsian dinosaurs that lived during the Turonian stage of the Late Cretaceous in what is now New Mexico, United States. Only a single species is known, ''Zuniceratops christopheri''. Histor ...

'', are the increase of the number of teeth to two or three and the possession of two roots per teeth. More general derived traits are the exclusion of the

frontal bone In the human skull, the frontal bone or sincipital bone is an unpaired bone which consists of two portions.'' Gray's Anatomy'' (1918) These are the vertically oriented squamous part, and the horizontally oriented orbital part, making up the bo ...

from the upper rim of the eye socket and the presence of incipient cavities in the skull roof.

Classification

''Turanoceratops'' belonged to the Ceratopsia (the name is

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 ...

for "horned face"), 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, which ended 66 million years ago. All ceratopsians became extinct at the end of this period. A 2009 study led by Hans-Dieter Sues analysed additional fossil material of ''Turanoceratops'' and concluded that, contrary to expectations, it represented a true (though "transitional") member of the family

Ceratopsidae Ceratopsidae (sometimes spelled Ceratopidae) is a family of ceratopsian dinosaurs including ''Triceratops'', ''Centrosaurus'', and ''Styracosaurus''. All known species were quadrupedal herbivores from the Upper Cretaceous. All but one species are k ...

. If correct, it would represent an

n ceratopsid. At the time of publication this would have been unique, as all other ceratopsids known to that point were from

.Sues, H.-D., and Averianov, A. (2009). "''Turanoceratops tardabilis''—the first ceratopsid dinosaur from Asia." ''Naturwissenschaften'', . Some scientists, such as Andrew Farke, disagreed with Sues' findings. Farke and colleagues ran an independent

phylogenetic 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 dat ...

analysis of the new ''Turanoceratops'' fossils and found that it was a close relative of Ceratopsidae (the immediate sister group) but was not a true member of that

clade In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach t ...

.Farke, A., Sampson, S.D., Forster, C.A., Loewen, M.A. (2009). "''Turanoceratops tardabilis''—sister taxon, but not a ceratopsid." ''Naturwissenschaften'', 7 May 2009. . Sues and Alexander Averianov criticised that analysis, arguing that Farke and colleagues misinterpreted or mis-coded some characteristics of the fossil in their analysis.Sues, H.-D. and Averianov, A. (2009). "Phylogenetic position of ''Turanoceratops'' (Dinosauria: Ceratopsia)." ''Naturwissenschaften'', 20 May 2009. . However, the describers of the only known Asian ceratopsid '' Sinoceratops'' conducted a phylogenetic analysis and concluded that ''Turanoceratops'' was more derived than ''Zuniceratops'' and was outside of Ceratopsidae, because it lacks several important

synapomorphies In phylogenetics, an apomorphy (or derived trait) is a novel character or character state that has evolved from its ancestral form (or plesiomorphy). A synapomorphy is an apomorphy shared by two or more taxa and is therefore hypothesized to ...

of this group.

Paleobiology

''Turanoceratops'', like all ceratopsians, was a

herbivore A herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically evolved to feed on plants, especially upon vascular tissues such as foliage, fruits or seeds, as the main component of its diet. These more broadly also encompass animals that eat ...

. 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 and conifers. It would have used its sharp ceratopsian beak to bite off the leaves or needles.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q134820 Ceratopsia Dinosaur genera Turonian dinosaurs Bissekty Formation Fossil taxa described in 1989 Dinosaurs of Uzbekistan

Discovery and naming

Description

Classification

Paleobiology

See also

References