Dinosaurs / Cretaceous / Liaoceratops
Liaoceratops
Cretaceous lee-OW-seh-rah-tops, “Liaoning horned face”
Liaoceratops was an exceptionally diminutive early ceratopsian that roamed the volcanic lake environments of Early Cretaceous China. Discovered in the famous fossil beds of the Yixian Formation, it measured roughly fifty to seventy centimetres long and weighed no more than a domestic cat. Despite its modest proportions, Liaoceratops provided key insights into horned dinosaur anatomy. It possessed a small, delicate neck frill and pairs of tiny, outward-facing horns on its jugal bones beneath the eyes. Because it retains traits intermediate between early bipedal runners and advanced neoceratopsians, researchers regard Liaoceratops as a crucial transitional fossil. It was an active herbivore that likely fed on low-lying fern fronds, cycads, and early flowering plants, avoiding larger predators through speed and agility.
Small sideways-pointing jugal horns make it one of the earliest known ceratopsians with cheek spikes.
Where and when
Liaoceratops lived in the Early Cretaceous, from 126 to 122 million years ago (Barremian-Aptian age). Its remains come from China, in the Yixian Formation.
The numbers
Length 0.6 m (estimates run from 0.5 to 0.7 m). Mass about 2.8 kg. Hip height about 0.25 m. That is 0.4 human-lengths, or 0.05 of a double-decker bus. These are estimates from partial skeleton; fields marked estimated by the site are length, mass, hip height.