Outline: a typical ceratopsian
Liaoceratops
"Liaoning horned face"
- Lived
- 126 to 120 million years ago, Early Cretaceous
- Diet
- Herbivore
- Group
- Ceratopsians
- Found in
- China
- Named by
- Xu et al. 2002
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
125 million years ago
Field notes
About Liaoceratops
What it was like
Liaoceratops was a very small, early horned dinosaur, about the size of a small dog. It had a small frill and horn-like bumps on its cheeks. It is one of the earliest known members of the line that led to Triceratops.
Its world
It lived in the Early Cretaceous, in what is now China. It comes from the Yixian Formation, where it shared the land with Psittacosaurus, the feathered tyrannosaur Yutyrannus and the small hunter Sinornithosaurus.
How it was found
Xu and colleagues named Liaoceratops in 2002.
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
Close relatives
Other members of Neoceratopsia
Sources: WikidataNamed in: X. Xu, P. J. Makovicky, and X.-l. Wang, M. A. Norell, H.-l. You. 2002. A ceratopsian dinosaur from China and the early evolution of the Ceratopsia. Nature 416:314-317