Graciliceratops

Graciliceratops Temporal range: Late Cretaceous,
Artist's impression
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Superorder:	Dinosauria
Order:	Ornithischia
Suborder:	Cerapoda
Infraorder:	Ceratopsia
Genus:	Graciliceratops Sereno et al., 2000
Species
G. mongoliensis Sereno et al., 2000 (type)

Graciliceratops (meaning 'graceful horned face') is a Ceratopsian dinosaur first described by paleontologist Paul Sereno in 2000. It is known from the Late Cretaceous period and its fossils were found in Mongolia. Only a partial skeleton has been found.

The type (and only known) species is Graciliceratops mongoliensis.

Classification

Graciliceratops belonged to the Ceratopsia (the name is Greek for "horned face"), a group of herbivorous dinosaurs with parrot-like beaks which thrived in North America and Asia during the Cretaceous Period, which ended roughly 65 million years ago. All ceratopsians became extinct at the end of this era.

Diet

Graciliceratops, like all ceratopsians, was a herbivore. During the Cretaceous, flowering plants were "geographically limited on the landscape", and so it is likely that this dinosaur fed on the predominant plants of the era: ferns, cycads and conifers. It would have used its sharp ceratopsian beak to bite off the leaves or needles.

References

• Graciliceratops in Dinosaurier-info (in German)
• http://www.thescelosaurus.com/ceratopsia.htm
• Graciliceratops in the Dinosaur Encyclopedia

Links

• Graciliceratops in the Dino Directory

See also

• Leptoceratops
• Microceratus