Udanoceratops
| Udanoceratops Temporal range: Late Cretaceous,
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|---|---|
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| The lower jaw was distinctively robust | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | †Ornithischia |
| Clade: | †Ceratopsia |
| Family: | †Leptoceratopsidae |
| Genus: | †Udanoceratops Kurzanov, 1992 |
| Species: | †U. tschizhovi
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| Binomial name | |
| †Udanoceratops tschizhovi Kurzanov, 1992
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Udanoceratops (meaning "Udan-Sayr horn face") is an extinct genus of leptoceratopsid ceratopsian dinosaur. It lived during the Late Cretaceous Period in the Campanian faunal stage. Its fossils were found in Mongolia.
Discovery
Udanoceratops is known only from the holotype specimen, a large and almost complete skull, which was 60 centimeters long (24 in) and moderately well preserved. It appears to be the largest bipedal neoceratopsian found to date. The skull has very little horn or frill and the animal is estimated at about 4 meters long (13 ft). The holotype was collected in the Udan-Sayr locality from the Djadokhta Formation in Ömnögovi Province, dating to the Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous period, about 83.5-70.6 million years ago. In 2007, Udanoceratops aff. tschizhovi was described based on a single specimen from the Campanian-stage Barun Goyot Formation, in Dornogovi Province.
Etymology
Udanoceratops was first named by Sergei Kurzanov in 1992 and the type species is Udanoceratops tschizhovi. The generic name is derived from the name of the locality in which the holotype was found (Udan-Sayr) and Greek ceras/κέρας meaning "horn" and -ops/ωψ meaning "face".
Classification
Udanoceratops belonged to the Ceratopsia (the name is derived Greek meaning 'horned face'), a group of herbivorous dinosaurs with parrot-like beaks which thrived in North America and Asia during the Cretaceous Period. Within the order, Chinnery places it within the Leptoceratopsidae, as the only Asian representative, along with the North American Leptoceratops, Montanoceratops and Prenoceratops.
Diet
Udanoceratops, like all ceratopsians, was a herbivore. During the Cretaceous, flowering plants were "geographically limited on the landscape", 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
- Dodson, P. (1996). The Horned Dinosaurs. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey. ISBN 0-691-05900-4.
- Kurzanov, S.M. (1992). "A giant protoceratopsid from the Upper Cretaceous of Mongolia (in Russian)". Paleontological Journal: 81–93.
