[D] Sinoceratops zhuchengensis [sG] [T]
Describer
Xu, Wang, Zhao, & Li 2010
Time
Cretaceous Late Campanian Maastrichtian
Classification
Ornithischia Genasauria Cerapoda Marginocephalia Ceratopia Neoceratopia Ceratopidae Centrosaurinae
Diet
Herbivore
Fossilsite
Wangshi Series, Zangjiazhuang, Zhucheng, Shandong Province, China
Info
Abstract
Ceratopsid dinosaurs represent one of the best known dinosaur groups in the Late Cretaceous, and their unquestionable fossil records are exclusively restricted to western North America. Here we report a new ceratopsid dinosaur, Sinoceratops zhuchengensis gen. et sp. nov., from the Upper Cretaceous Wangshi Group of Zhucheng, Shandong Province, China. Cladistic analysis places this new taxon as the only known ceratopsid from outside North America, in a basal position within the Centrosaurinae.
It is considerably larger than most other centrosaurines but similar in size to basal chasmosaurines. Furthermore, it is more similar to chasmosaurines than to other centrosaurines in several features, thus blurring the distinction of the two ceratopsid subgroups.
This new find not only provides significant information on the morphological transition from non-ceratopsid to ceratopsid dinosaurs, but also complicates the biogeography of the Ceratopsidae, and further demonstrates that fossil sampling has profound effects on reconstructing dinosaurian biogeography.
Holotype
Zhucheng Dinosaur Museum (ZCDM) V0010, a partial skull with most elements of the skull roof and partial braincase.
Referred specimens
ZCDM V0011, a partial skull with much of the skull roof and most of the braincase. ZCDM V0012, partial braincase.
Etymology
Sino (China) and ceratops (horned-face, Latinized Greek);Zhucheng (the place that produced the fossil remains).
Type locality and horizon
Zangjiazhuang, Zhucheng, Shandong Province, China. Upper Cretaceous Wangshi Group.
Diagnosis
Large centrosaurine ceratopsid with at least ten robust, strongly curved horn-like processes along the posterior margin of the parietals and at least four horn-like processes on the squamosals. It is also different from other centrosaurine in the following features: a large accessory fenestra anterior to the antorbital fenestra, weakly undulated external margin of the parietals and broadly based epoccipitals.