Asiaceratops
"Asian horned face"
- Lived
- 101 to 94 million years ago, Late Cretaceous
- Diet
- Herbivore
- Group
- Ceratopsians
- Found in
- Uzbekistan
- Named by
- Nessov et al. 1989
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
95 million years ago
Habitat
It lived near the coastal waters of what is now Uzbekistan. Alectrosaurus is also reported from the Khodzhakul Formation.
Field notes
About Asiaceratops
What it was like
Asiaceratops was a small, early horned dinosaur, a plant eater with a beak. It is known from teeth and bits of jaw.
Its world
It lived in the Late Cretaceous, in what is now Uzbekistan. It comes from the Khodzhakul Formation.
How it was found
Nessov and colleagues named Asiaceratops in 1989. Because the fossils are so scrappy, some scientists treat the name as doubtful.
Field gallery
More views of Asiaceratops
Scenes reconstructed from the available fossil evidence.
The evidence
The science behind Asiaceratops
Which parts of the picture come from its own bones, and which come from its relatives.
From its own fossils
- The type specimen is a piece of left upper jaw with teeth.
- Other isolated jaw and braincase bones have been tentatively assigned to Asiaceratops.
Borrowed from relatives
- Its missing skull, frill and body have no established reconstruction from a named relative.
Still unknown
- Experts disagree about whether Asiaceratops is a distinct genus: its type jaw is not distinctive on its own, and the other bones were grouped with it by size and rock layer.
- The shape of its complete skull, frill and body.
- Its skin covering and color.
Discovery timeline
- 1989Named itNessov, Kaznyshkina & Cherepanov
- 2006Family treeMAKOVICKY & NORELL
- 2009SkullsAverianov & Sues
Key papers
The research behind what we know of Asiaceratops
Named it
Named Asiaceratops from fragmentary horned-dinosaur remains in Uzbekistan.
[Mesozoic ceratopsian dinosaurs and crocodiles of central Asia]. In Bogdanova and Khozatskii (eds.), Theoretical and Applied Aspects of Modern Palaeontology.
No link available
Family tree
Reexamined the tentative bone assignments and questioned whether they represent a single distinct genus.
Yamaceratops Dorngobiensis, a New Primitive Ceratopsian (Dinosauria: Ornithischia) from the Cretaceous of Mongolia. American Museum Novitates 3530: 1
Read the paper : Yamaceratops Dorngobiensis, a New Primitive Ceratopsian (Dinosauria: Ornithischia) from the Cretaceous of Mongolia (opens in a new tab)Skulls
Described skull bones of an unidentified early horned dinosaur from Kazakhstan that were not assigned to Asiaceratops.
First Record of a Basal Neoceratopsian Dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Kazakhstan. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 54: 553-556
Read the paper : First Record of a Basal Neoceratopsian Dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Kazakhstan (opens in a new tab)
Close relatives
Other members of Neoceratopsia
Sources: Wikidata