{"id":1052,"date":"2023-01-27T13:21:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-27T13:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jellyquest.com\/?p=1052"},"modified":"2023-07-31T11:12:28","modified_gmt":"2023-07-31T10:12:28","slug":"protoceratops-facts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jellyquest.com\/protoceratops-facts\/","title":{"rendered":"15 Interesting Facts about the Protoceratops Dinosaur"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Protoceratops (said pro-toe-seh-rah-tops) was a four-legged herbivorous, or vegetarian, dinosaur<\/strong><\/a> which lived in the late Cretaceous period, around 75\u201370 million years ago. It was found in central Asia, alongside ferocious predators such as the infamous Velociraptor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Protoceratops means \u2018first horned face\u2019 in Greek, but it was certainly not the first of its kind, called \u2018ceratopsians\u2019. Also, Protoceratops\u2019 skull consisted of a bird-like beak and a large, bony collar, but definitely no horns! So, the name may not quite fit the image and, undeniably, Protoceratops wasn\u2019t the most dangerous of dinosaurs, or even the most dazzling. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, it is famous in its own way, and that\u2019s for bravely battling a vicious Velociraptor hungry for his lunch over 70 million years ago! But how do we know that? Read on to find out the answer and even more fascinating Protoceratops facts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Protoceratops was the size of a family pet.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It was actually quite a small dinosaur, just 1.8m or 6ft long, and about 0.6m or 2ft high. But, Protoceratops\u2019 size was deceptive – it weighed in at a hefty 180kg, that\u2019s 400lb \u2013 the same as a pygmy hippo. So, although only about the size of quite a large pet dog, having this chunky little chap stand on your feet at dinnertime would be a lot more painful!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Protoceratops\u2019 had a herbivorous diet.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Protoceratops\u2019 diet was strictly vegetarian, and it was physically adapted to eat plants, making it a herbivore. It used the claws on its stumpy front legs to dig through undergrowth for twigs or leaves and reached up to snip low hanging branches, or maybe some newly evolving Cretaceous angiosperms (flowering plants), with its sharp beak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. The habitat for a Protoceratops was originally thought to be swamps and forests.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Until the 1920\u2019s, palaeontologists (that\u2019s fossil scientists) thought that all dinosaurs lived in swamps and forests. However, the discovery of Protoceratops\u2019 eggs fossilised in sandy pits in desert<\/a> areas of China and Mongolia proved that theory wrong. What\u2019s more, the eggs had patterns and small pores on their shell, convincing scientists that they were adapted for desert survival.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The skeleton of a Protoceratops, highlighting it’s huge frilled skull. <\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

4. The first ever Protoceratops fossilised skeleton was discovered in 1922 on an expedition funded by the American Museum of Natural History.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Leading the expedition was famous fossil hunter, Roy Chapman Andrews, who gave his name to the species making its official title, Protoceratops andrewsi. The trip to uninhabitable and unknown Mongolia as it was then, led to a huge discovery by Andrews\u2019 team in the Gobi Desert<\/strong><\/a> which covers parts of China too. There were massive numbers of Protoceratops eggs, fossils and, as a bonus, the additional discoveries of Velociraptor, Oviraptor and Psittacosaurus, a genetic ancestor of Protoceratops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. The discoveries of hundreds upon hundreds of eggs and fossils all together in pits and piles in different locations has enabled scientists to deduce that Protoceratops lived in large packs, or herds.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This was probably a security measure to help protect these relatively helpless dinosaurs from their numerous apex predators \u2013 safety in numbers to the extreme!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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