Protoceratops

Protoceratops (Greek for “first horned-face”), small, plant-eating dinosaur living in Mongolia in the late Cretaceous Period (about 97 million to 65 million years before present). A member of the suborder Ceratopsia, Protoceratops grew to a length of about 1.8 m (6 ft) and was fully quadrupedal (walked on four legs). It had a short tail and a small bony neck frill at the back of its skull where its strong jaw muscles attached. Windowlike holes in the frill made the skull light so that the animal could make fast, defensive movements. Protoceratops held its head low for grazing, using its parrotlike beak to snip off low foliage. It had no horns—in their place were bony bumps above the eyes and nose. Its body was more delicate than later ceratopsians, such as Triceratops, but sturdier than the earlier Cretaceous ceratopsian Psittacosaurus.

The first Protoceratops fossils were discovered during the 1920s expeditions led by American paleontologist Roy Chapman Andrews to the red sandstones of Bayn-Dzak (“Flaming Cliffs”) in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia. Many complete skeletons were found, including young Protoceratops and the very first nests of dinosaur eggs—which scientists assumed belonged to Protoceratops. Another trip to the Gobi Desert in 1971 revealed a Protoceratops fossil with its beak closed firmly around the forearm of a fossil, whose hind claw was embedded in the ceratopsian’s belly. They had died from their battle wounds and had been preserved for over 70 million years. New finds in the 1990s indicate that some nests thought to contain Protoceratops eggs belonged to the small meat-eating dinosaur Oviraptor instead.