Montanoceratops
Montanoceratops cerorhynchus
Pronounced: mon-Tan-o-Sair-a-tops
Diet: Herbivore (plant-eater)
Name Means: Montana Horned Face
Length: 10 ft. (3 meters)
Height: 3 ft. (1 meters)
Weight: 1,000 pounds (450 kilos)
Time: Late Cretaceous - 73 million years ago
Fossil remains for this Dinosaur have been found in North America
Montanoceratops is one of those interesting dinosaurs that demonstrate the evolution of a dinosaur family. It is related to the same family as Protoceratops but it is a more advanced member of this family, a little closer to the later horned dinosaurs such as Zuniceratops and the big Triceratops Montanoceratops was a medium sized plant-eater, with a beak for ripping leaves off plants and lots of teeth in the back of its mouth for chewing them up. It had no real horns, but a bulge on the top of its beak shows the beginning of what would become a nose-horn in its later family members.
Originally classified as a Leptoceratops this dinosaur was later diagnosed as more advanced than both Leptoceratops and Protoceratops It may be a direct ancestor of the early horned dinosaur, Zuniceratops. |
