Protoceratops Facts

Protoceratops was a cerotopsian dinosaur (related to dinosaurs such as Styracosaur and Triceratops) that lived in the late Cretaceous period, between 85 million and 80 million old age ago. Like its relatives, Protoceratops was a herbivore (plant eater).

Protoceratops was generally about six and one-half feet (2 meters) long, although some grownups grew larger, perhaps as long as 9 feet (2.7 meters). Generally speaking, Protoceratops was quadrapedal (walked on four legs), although it is likely that the animate being may have got been able to stand up up on its hind legs (its hind legs are longer than its presence legs). Protoceratops is recognizable by its bony cervix frill, and beak-like jaws which would have got been able to Munch through tough vegetative matter. Unlike many other Cerotopsian dinosaurs, Protoceratops did not have got horns on its neb or cervix frill. it did however had have got a bony knob on its snout.

Two species of Protoceratops are currently known: Protoceratops andrewsi and Protoceratops hellenikorhinus. Fossils of these animate beings have got been establish in Mongolia. Some scholars, such as as Adrienne Mayor of Stanford, have got got conjectured that early discoveries of these dodoes may have inspired the fable of the gryphon (a mythical animal with the caput and wings of an eagle, but the organic structure and limbs of a lion). The theory travels that dodoes inspired fables among the Saka-Scythian nomadic people, and these people in bend passed their fables on to the ancient Greeks and Romans.

One other interesting fact about Protoceratops is that it is the first dinosaur for which fossilized nests were found. Protoceratops dug its nest in sand, and laid its eggs, each egg being about 8 ins (20 centimeters) long, in spirals within the nest.