Dinosaurs / Cretaceous / Protoceratops
Protoceratops
Cretaceous PRO-toe-SER-uh-tops, “first horned face”
Protoceratops was a pig-sized herbivorous dinosaur that populated the arid landscapes of Central Asia during the Late Cretaceous period. Growing up to two and a half metres long, it possessed a large neck frill that expanded with maturity and a powerful beak for snipping tough scrub vegetation. Unlike its later North American relatives such as Triceratops, it lacked pointed facial horns. Discovered in abundance by American Museum of Natural History expeditions in the 1920s, fossils cover the entire life cycle from tiny hatchlings to mature adults. The stunning find of a Protoceratops entangled with a Velociraptor captured in a sudden sand dune collapse remains one of palaeontology's greatest snapshots of prehistoric behaviour.
A specimen was famously preserved locked in mortal combat with a predatory Velociraptor.
Where and when
Protoceratops lived in the Late Cretaceous, from 75 to 71 million years ago (Campanian age). Its remains come from Mongolia and China, in the Djadokhta Formation.
The numbers
Length 2.2 m (estimates run from 1.8 to 2.5 m). Mass about 100 kg. Hip height about 0.7 m. That is 1.3 human-lengths, or 0.2 of a double-decker bus. These are estimates from near-complete skeleton; fields marked estimated by the site are length, mass, hip height.