Ceratopsian Month #13 – Sinoceratops zhuchengensis

An illustration of the extinct ceratopsid dinosaur Sinoceratops. It's a chunky quadrupedal dinosaur with a parrot-like beak, a long nose horn, tiny brow horns, and forward-curving spikes around the edge of its frill that give it a crown-like appearance. It's depicted with speculative quills on its back and tail, and it's colored black with a paler underside, and white, black, and red markings on its face and frill that resemble

Sinoceratops (“Chinese horned face”) was the first and only ceratopsid known from China, and possibly also the only one known from the entirety of Asia – depending on whether Turanoceratops counts as a true ceratopsid or not.

Discovered in the Shandong province, it dates to about 73 million years ago and was one of the larger centrosaurs at an estimated length of at least 6m (19′8″).

It had a well-developed nose horn and highly reduced brow horns, and forward-curving spikes around the edge of its frill that gave it a crown-like appearance. Uniquely for a ceratopsid, it also had some protruding bumps just below the spikes, creating a second row of ornamentation.

The presence of Sinoceratops in China shows that at least one lineage of centrosaurs dispersed across to Asia in the Late Cretaceous, but they seem to have been quite rare animals on that side of Beringia. While other dinosaur groups such as hadrosaurs and tyrannosaurs seemed to do just fine on both continents, something prevented the ceratopsids from being nearly as prolific as their North American relatives.

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