Graciliceratops

From Encyclopedia Jr, free information reference for Kids

Graciliceratops 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] References

• http://www.dinosaurier-web.de/galery/pages_g/graciliceratops.html
• http://208.164.121.55/reference/dinosaur/dodson.htm
• http://www.users.qwest.net/~jstweet1/ceratopia.htm
• http://www.dinoruss.com/de_4/5cec564.htm
• http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:JTuyD7eiP1AJ:dinosauricon.com/genera/graciliceratops.html+Graciliceratops&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=2