ProtoceratopsArticle Free Pass Protoceratops (genus
Protoceratops), ceratopsian dinosaur found as fossils in the
Gobi Desert from 80-million-year-old deposits of the Late
Cretaceous Period. Protoceratops was a predecessor of the more
familiar horned dinosaurs such as Triceratops. Like other
ceratopsians, it had a rostral bone on the upper beak and a
small frill around the neck, but Protoceratops lacked the large
nose and eye horns of more derived ceratopsians. Protoceratops
evolved from small bipedal ceratopsians such as Psittacosaurus,
but Protoceratops was larger and moved about on all four limbs.
The hind limbs, however, were more strongly developed than the
forelimbs (as expected in an animal that evolved from bipedal
ancestors), which gave the back a pronounced arch. Although
small for a ceratopsian, Protoceratops was still a relatively
large animal. Adults were about 1.8 metres (6 feet) long and
would have weighed about 180 kg (400 pounds). The skull was very
long, about one-fifth the total body length.