Dino card No. 0823 of 2,027

Hualianceratops

Say it: hwa-lee-an-SER-ah-tops

Name means: “ornamental face”1

Ate: PlantsHorned dinosLate Jurassic

Hualianceratops was a tiny, plant-eating dinosaur that lived about 160 million years ago in what is now China. It was about as long as a big dog and had a rough, bumpy face that gave it its name.1

Lived

162 to 155 million years ago6

Late Jurassic

Fossils found in

Wucaiwan, Xinjiang, China1 3

Food

Plants2

Length

1.2 m1

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

as long as 2.5 house cats nose to tailas long as 7 bananas end to end

How big was Hualianceratops compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Hualianceratops lived at the same time and place as another early horned dinosaur called Yinlong.3

Its skull was only about 25 centimetres (10 inches) long.1

The name Hualianceratops means 'ornamental face' because its jaw bones had a rough, bumpy texture.1

Scientists found its fossils in rocks that are about 160 million years old, from the Late Jurassic period.1 2

Hualianceratops is one of the oldest known ceratopsians, the group that later included Triceratops.3

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

?How big was Hualianceratops?

About 1.2 metres (3.9 feet) long, roughly the size of a spaniel or a big dog.1 4

?What did Hualianceratops eat?

It was a plant-eater (herbivore).1

?When did Hualianceratops live?

It lived about 160 million years ago, during the Late Jurassic period.1 4

?Why did Hualianceratops have a bumpy face?

Scientists are not sure. The bumps might have protected blood vessels in its face, or they may have been a leftover feature from its ancestors.5

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Hualianceratops
Named by: Han et al. 20156
Group: Horned dinos
Family / clade: Chaoyangsauridae6
Classification: Ornithischia > Ceratopsia6
Age of the rocks: 162 to 155 million years (Oxfordian)6
Rock formations: Shishugou6
Countries: China6
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database6
Discovery: Hualianceratops was named in 2015 by Han Fenglu, Catherine Forster, James Clark, and Xu Xing. The only fossil was found in 2002 in the Shishugou Formation of Xinjiang, China.1 3
Still debated: Scientists are not sure exactly how Hualianceratops is related to other early ceratopsians like Psittacosaurus and Chaoyangsaurus.3

Where the facts come from

Hualianceratops (en.wikipedia.org)
PBDB Taxon (paleobiodb.org)
A New Taxon of Basal Ceratopsian from China and the Early Evolution of Ceratopsia (journals.plos.org)
A New Taxon of Basal Ceratopsian from China and the Early Evolution of Ceratopsia | PLOS One (journals.plos.org)
New Triceratops Cousin Had a Gnarly, Bumpy Skull | National Geographic (nationalgeographic.com)
Hualianceratops in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

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