Protoceratops Characteristics

Protoceratops was a small dinosaur and measured 6 feet (1.8 metres) in length, 3 feet (0.9 metres) in height to the top of its shoulders and weighed 200 kilograms (900 pounds). They were about the size of a modern sheep. Around its neck was a large frill which may have been used for protection of the neck or as a means of attracting mates and impressing other members of the species. The frill contained large holes and varied in size and shape depending on individual. Some had short frills while others had frills the size of their skull. Protoceratops walked relatively slowly on 4 short, thick legs and a bulky body.

Protoceratops had a large skull compared to its body size. Their jaws were muscular and were packed with many cheek teeth well suited for chewing tough vegetation and could also deliver a powerful bite. The skull also featured a huge frontal beak and 4 pairs of fenestrae (skull openings).

Protoceratops had large orbits (the holes for its eyes), which measured around 50 millimetres in diameter. The arch of bone over its nostrils had 2 small nasal horns and there were no teeth at the front of the snout. In early times, a skull of a protoceratops lead natives to believe that it was the head of a mythical creature, such as a griffin.

Protoceratops was a herbivore and ate cycads and other prehistoric plants and probably lived in herds. They laid eggs in nests which measured around 8 inches in length. Each nest could contain 12 or more eggs. Hatchlings were estimated to be around 12 inches long. The omnivore, Oviraptor, who lived at the same time, was thought to eat Protoceratops eggs. Evidence of this was an Oviraptor skeleton found near a nest and it is thought that it received injury from an angry Protoceratops female who was protecting her nest from predators. The main predator of Protoceratops was most likely the fierce carnivore, Velociraptor.

Protoceratops was a ceratopsian, whose intelligence (as measured by its relative brain to body weight, or EQ) was intermediate among the dinosaurs.

The first specimen of Protoceratops was discovered in the Gobi Desert in 1922. The fossils hail from the Djadochta Formation and date from the Campanian stage. The fossils were in an excellent state of preservation, with even the sclerotic rings (delicate occular bones) preserved in some specimens. In 1971, a fossil was found that captured a Velociraptor clutched around a Protoceratops in Mongolia. It is believed that they died simultaneously, while fighting, when they were either surprised by a sand storm or buried when a sand dune collapsed on top of them.

Protoceratops was described by Walter Granger and W.K. Gregory in 1923.