Lamaceratops

Lamaceratops
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Superorder:	Dinosauria
Order:	Ornithischia
Infraorder:	Ceratopsia
Family:	Protoceratopsidae
Genus:	Lamaceratops
Species
	Lamaceratops tereschenkoi

Lamaceratops,"Lama Horned Face", is a ceratopsian dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Mongolia. It was discovered in the Khulsan locality in the Nemegt Valley, outer Mongolia. The validity of this species remains in doubt, as the fossils may in fact be referable to Bagaceratops.

Classification

Lamaceratops belonged to Bagaceratopsidae within 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. Its type species is Lamaceratops tereschenkoi, and it was first described by Aliafanov in 2003. The validity of this species remains in doubt. Makovicky ^[1] argued that there is little evidence for separating Lamaceratops from Bagaceratops, but also noted that it would not be surprising to find that different species occurred at different localities. Lamaceratops is described from the Khulsan locality in the Nemegt Valley, while Bagaceratops is described from the Red Beds at Khermeen Tsav.

Diet

Lamaceratops, like all ceratopsians, was a herbivore.

References

V. R. Alifanov. 2003. Two new dinosaurs of the infraorder Neoceratopsia (Ornithischia) from the Upper Cretaceous of the Nemegt Depression, Mongolian People's Republic. Paleontological Journal 37(5):524-534