Dino card No. 0306 of 2,027

Breviceratops

Say it: BREV-ih-SER-ah-tops

Name means: “short horned face”1

Ate: PlantsHorned dinosLate Cretaceous

Breviceratops was a small, plant-eating dinosaur with a parrot-like beak and a short frill on its head. It lived in the Late Cretaceous period, about 83 to 72 million years ago, in what is now Mongolia.1 2

Lived

84 to 72 million years ago4

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Fossils were found in the Barun Goyot Formation in Mongolia, at places like Khulsan and Hermiin Tsav.1

Food

Plants2

Length

1.98 m3

estimate based on closely related taxa

Weight

99.8 kg to 199.6 kg3

estimate based on closely related taxa

Height

1.07 m3

at hips

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

How tall was it?

at hips

How heavy was it?

as heavy as 7 big dogs

as long as 4 house cats nose to tailas long as 11 bananas end to endas heavy as 40 watermelonsup to the handle of a door

How big was Breviceratops compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Breviceratops had teeth in the front of its upper jaw, which is a primitive feature shared with Protoceratops andrewsi.1

It had an opening in its skull in front of the eye socket, called an antorbital fenestra, which was narrow and straight-shaped.1

The skull ended in a moderately pronounced neck frill, a common feature among protoceratopsids.1

The first fossils were found in the 1960s by a Polish expedition to the Gobi Desert.1

Breviceratops was originally named as a species of Protoceratops, but was given its own genus in 1990.1

Some scientists think Breviceratops might be a juvenile stage of Bagaceratops, but the holotype has primitive teeth that don't match.1

AI-made picture of Breviceratops — An AI-made picture of how Breviceratops might have looked, made by a computer from what scientists know. It is a guess: the real animal may have looked different, and nobody knows its true colours.

you asked

Most asked questions about Breviceratops

?How big was Breviceratops?

Nobody knows for sure because only juvenile fossils have been found. The known skull is small, suggesting it was a small dinosaur.1

?What did Breviceratops eat?

It was a plant-eater (herbivore). It used its parrot-like beak to bite off plants.1 4

?Is Breviceratops a dinosaur?

Yes, it is a dinosaur. It belongs to the group Ceratopsia, which includes horned, parrot-beaked dinosaurs.1

?When did Breviceratops live?

It lived during the Late Cretaceous period, about 83 to 72 million years ago.1 4

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Myth buster

Myth: Breviceratops is the same as Bagaceratops.

Truth: Some scientists have suggested that, but the holotype from Khulsan has primitive premaxillary teeth that are different from Bagaceratops, so most researchers now treat it as a separate genus.1

For dino experts

Scientific name: Breviceratops
Named by: Kurzanov 19904
Group: Horned dinos
Family / clade: Protoceratopsidae4
Classification: Ornithischia > Ceratopsia4
Age of the rocks: 84 to 72 million years (Campanian)4
Rock formations: Baruungoyot4
Countries: Mongolia4
Fossil records: 2 in the Paleobiology Database4
Discovery: The first fossils were found in the 1960s by a Polish expedition to the Gobi Desert. They were named Protoceratops kozlowskii in 1975, and then renamed Breviceratops by Sergei Kurzanov in 1990.1
Still debated: Scientists still debate whether Breviceratops is a separate genus or a juvenile form of Bagaceratops.1

Where the facts come from

Breviceratops (en.wikipedia.org)
PBDB Taxon (paleobiodb.org)
Breviceratops: Insights into the Late Cretaceous Herbivore (thedinosaurs.org)
Breviceratops in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

Every fact on this page has a number that points to its source. If we got something wrong, sorry, we are dino fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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