Dinosaur Hall -Ceratopsians
Ceratopsians are the Rhinos of
the dinosaur world—large, plant eating and horned.
All ceratopsians have a ‘beak’ and at least the
beginning of a frill. Later forms also had the
well-known horns.
Psittacosaurus
Psittacosaurus means the “parrot-lizard” because
of the shape of its beak. Although they don’t look
much alike, Psittacosaurus was an ancestor of
the four-footed horned dinosaurs such as
Triceratops. Psittacosaurus lived 110
million years ago during the Early Cretaceous, while
Triceratops was abundant in the Late
Cretaceous, 65 million years ago.
Protoceratops
Protoceratops was a small primitive ceratopsian.
Protoceratops and its relatives had a short
frill, teeth with single roots, little if any nose
horn and no brow horns. Protoceratops is one
of the most common Late Cretaceous dinosaurs in
Asia.
Zuniceratops
Zuniceratops is a ceratopsian notable for
many firsts. It is the first North American
ceratopsian, the first ceratopsian with doubled
rooted teeth and the first ceratopsian with brow
horns. Expeditions sponsored by the Arizona Museum of Natural History, now the Arizona Museum of Natural History,
discovered Zuniceratops in Cretaceous
sediments 90 million years old near the Arizona –
New Mexico border.
Triceratops
Triceratops was one of the last dinosaurs
to roam the Western Interior and perhaps the most
abundant dinosaur of its time, 65 million years
ago. Although abundant, Triceratops
apparently did not range south of what is today
mid-Colorado. Triceratops stood up to 10 feet
tall, measured 30 feet long, and weighed more than 6
tons (12,000 pounds). Triceratops used its
long, sharp horns for defense against large meat
eating predators such as Tyrannosaurus. This
specimen is an adolescent, not yet fully mature.
Pentaceratops
Pentaceratops means
“five horned faced,” because bones in the “cheek”
region have developed into a fourth and fifth pair
of horns. To date, Pentaceratops are only known from Cretaceous sediments of
northwest New Mexico, about 75 million years ago.
< Back
Next >
|
