Protoceratops

Protoceratops is a genus of small protoceratopsid dinosaurs that lived in Asia during the Late Cretaceous, around 75 to 71 million years ago. The genus Protoceratops includes two species: P. andrewsi and the larger P. hellenikorhinus. The former was described in 1923 with fossils from the Mongolian Djadokhta Formation, and the latter in 2001 with fossils from the Chinese Bayan Mandahu Formation. Protoceratops was initially believed to be an ancestor of ankylosaurians and larger ceratopsians, such as Triceratops and relatives, until the discoveries of other protoceratopsids. Populations of P. andrewsi may have evolved into Bagaceratops rozhdestvenskyi through anagenesis.

Protoceratops

Tadek Kurpaski from London, Poland · CC BY 2.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
ProtoceratopsidaePBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Ceratopsia
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Ceratopsia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Ornithischia
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Ceratopsia
Length
1.8 mWikidata

Time the record covers

At least 16 million years on record.

The record covers at least 100.5 Mya to 83.6 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 121.4 Mya to 66 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 1 of 38 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 37 of 38 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 38 occurrences123–121 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences121–119 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences119–117 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences117–115 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences115–113 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences113–111 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences111–109 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences109–107 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences107–105 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences105–103 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences103–101 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences101–99 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences99–98 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences98–96 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences96–94 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences94–92 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences92–90 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences90–88 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences88–86 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences86–84 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences84–82 Mya — about 5 occurrences82–80 Mya — about 6 occurrences80–78 Mya — about 6 occurrences78–76 Mya — about 6 occurrences76–74 Mya — about 6 occurrences74–73 Mya — about 6 occurrences73–71 Mya — about 1 occurrence71–69 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences69–67 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences67–65 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences100.5 Mya83.6 Mya123 Mya65 Mya

38 occurrences of Protoceratops on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

38 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

6 formations

Djadokhta — 44.25°N, 103.33°EDjadokhta — 44.16°N, 103.69°EDjadokhta — 44.00°N, 104.00°EDjadokhta — 44.23°N, 103.30°EDjadokhta — 44.13°N, 103.56°EDjadokhta — 44.15°N, 103.72°EDjadokhta — 44.09°N, 102.91°EDjadokhta — 44.52°N, 103.15°EDjadokhta — 44.05°N, 102.82°EBayan Mandahu — 41.74°N, 106.75°EBayan Mandahu — 41.80°N, 106.74°EBaruungoyot — 43.50°N, 101.07°EBaruungoyot — 43.32°N, 99.83°EBaruungoyot — 43.94°N, 101.33°EMiaogou — 38.86°N, 101.56°EAlagteeg — 44.26°N, 103.30°EWulansuhai — 39.22°N, 101.67°E

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The named rock units Protoceratops has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 3 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Protoceratops and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Protoceratops and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

106 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 33 sites for Protoceratops, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

25 references

Each of the 38 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 13 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content3

Picture of Protoceratops

Credit
Tadek Kurpaski from London, Poland
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Photogrammetry

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Protoceratops andrewsi · AMNH:FARB:6424

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itProtoceratopsidae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Granger and Gregory 1923