Dino card No. 0757 of 2,027

Gryphoceratops

Say it: GRIFF-in-oh-SORE-us

Name means: “griffin horned face”1

Ate: PlantsHorned dinosLate Cretaceous

Gryphoceratops was a tiny horned dinosaur that lived about 83 million years ago. It is the oldest known member of its family, the leptoceratopsids, and may be the smallest adult ceratopsian ever found in North America.1 2

Lived

86 to 84 million years ago5

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Alberta, Canada1 5

Food

Plants5

Length

0.5 m3

estimate from ROM news release

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

as long as 3 bananas end to end

How big was Gryphoceratops compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Gryphoceratops is known from only one fossil: a partial right lower jaw bone called a dentary.1

It lived about 83 million years ago during the Santonian stage of the Late Cretaceous.1 2

Gryphoceratops is the oldest known leptoceratopsid dinosaur.1 2

Even though it is very old, scientists think Gryphoceratops was one of the most advanced leptoceratopsids.1

The holotype fossil was found in the Milk River Formation in Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta.1

The species name morrisoni honors Ian Morrison, who prepared the fossil for study.1

AI-made picture of Gryphoceratops — An AI-made picture of how Gryphoceratops 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 Gryphoceratops

?How big was Gryphoceratops?

About 0.5 metres (1.6 feet) long. That makes it the smallest adult horned dinosaur found in North America.4 1

?Is Gryphoceratops a dinosaur?

Yes, it is a dinosaur. It belongs to the group Leptoceratopsidae, which are horned dinosaurs.1

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Gryphoceratops
Named by: Ryan et al. 20125
Group: Horned dinos
Family / clade: Leptoceratopsidae5
Classification: Ornithischia > Ceratopsia5
Age of the rocks: 86 to 84 million years (Santonian)5
Rock formations: Milk River5
Countries: Canada5
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database5
Discovery: Gryphoceratops was named by Michael J. Ryan, David C. Evans, Philip J. Currie, Caleb M. Brown and Don Brinkman in 2012. The only fossil was found in a bonebed in Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta, Canada.1 5
Still debated: Scientists are not sure exactly how big Gryphoceratops was because only a jaw bone has been found.1

Where the facts come from

Gryphoceratops (en.wikipedia.org)
ScienceDirect.com - Cretaceous Research - New leptoceratopsids from the Upper Cretaceous of Alberta, Canada (web.archive.org)
Scientists Name Two New Species of Horned Dinosaur | Royal Ontario Museum (rom.on.ca)
New Horned Dinosaurs Found—Among Littlest Known | National Geographic (nationalgeographic.com)
Gryphoceratops 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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