Microceratus
MY-cro-SER-at-us
Easily recognized thanks to its blunt beak and the small horn on its forehead (its name directly translates into English as ‘small-horned’), Microceratus is an herbivorous dinosaur that lived around 65-85 million years ago during the Cretaceous period. This genus walks on two legs and grows up to 80 centimeters in length - making it one of the smallest dinosaurs the world has seen.
Discovery
Microceratus was first discovered in 1953 by Anders Birger Bohlin during exploration of the Gobi desert in Inner Mongolia - although it was originally named Microceratops. In 2008 - a full 55 years later - it was revealed that the name Microceratops was already attributed to a genus wasp. The new name, Microceratus, was coined by Portuguese paleontologist Octavio Mateus.
Palaeoecology
Microceratus lived in the woodlands of Asia, feeding on plants and sticking to heavily wooded areas to hide from predators such as Velociraptor. Due to its small stature - the genus weighs around just 14lbs - Microceratus was extremely prone to attack, relying on its high speed to keep itself safe.
Information
- Era
- Late Cretaceous
- Family
- Ceratopsia
- Genus
- Microceratus
- Height
- 0.35M
- Length
- 0.8M
- Weight
- 6.3Kg
- Diet
- Ground Paleobotany
- Egg batch size
- 2 - 3
