Cerasinops
Cerasinops was a small, plant-eating dinosaur that lived about 80 million years ago. It had a parrot-like beak and a frill on its head, but no big horns like its famous cousin Triceratops. This dinosaur was about as long as a small car and weighed as much as a large pig.1
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Fun facts
Cerasinops is known from a skeleton that is almost 80% complete, which is very rare for a small dinosaur.1
Its name means 'cherry face' because the fossils were found in red-colored rocks that look like cherries.1
Cerasinops lived between 80.2 and 77 million years ago, during the Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous.1
It belonged to a group called leptoceratopsids, which were small, horned dinosaurs without big horns.1
The first fossils of Cerasinops were collected in 1935 by George Fryer Sternberg, but they were thought to be another dinosaur until 2007.1
The specimen that became the type of Cerasinops was nicknamed 'Cera' for over 20 years before it got its official name.1
Most asked questions about Cerasinops
?How big was Cerasinops?
About 2.5 metres (8.2 feet) long and weighed around 175 kilograms (386 pounds). That is about as long as a small motorcycle and as heavy as a large pig.1
?What did Cerasinops eat?
It was a plant-eater (herbivore). It used its parrot-like beak to bite off plants.1
?Did Cerasinops have horns?
No, it did not have big horns like Triceratops. It had a small frill on its head but no large horns.1
?Could Cerasinops walk on two legs?
Maybe. Scientists found features in its bones that suggest it might have been able to walk on two legs, which would be unusual for a small horned dinosaur.3
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For dino experts
- Scientific name
- Cerasinops
- Named by
- Chinnery and Horner 20074
- Group
- Horned dinos
- Family / clade
- Leptoceratopsidae4
- Classification
- Ornithischia > Ceratopsia4
- Age of the rocks
- 84 to 72 million years (Campanian)4
- Rock formations
- Two Medicine4
- Countries
- USA4
- Fossil records
- 3 in the Paleobiology Database4
- Discovery
- Cerasinops was named and described by Brenda Chinnery and Jack Horner in 2007. The main fossil, MOR 300, was found in the 1980s on land owned by the Hodgskiss family in Montana.1
- Still debated
- Scientists are not sure whether Cerasinops belongs inside the family Leptoceratopsidae or is a close relative outside it.1
Where the facts come from
- Cerasinops (en.wikipedia.org)
- New Dinosaur Species Found In Montana | ScienceDaily (sciencedaily.com)
- A new neoceratopsian dinosaur linking North American and Asian taxa (tandfonline.com)
- Cerasinops in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.
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