Prenoceratops

Graphical reconstruction

• North America

• Pieganensis P. Chinnery, 2004

Prenoceratops is a genus of bird Beck dinosaur ( Ornithischia ) from the group of ceratopsians.

Prenoceratops should have resembled the related Leptoceratops, even if so far only the skull was described. This was flat and curved than that of Leptoceratops, although the findings were too badly damaged to allow for an accurate analysis. The head was like many highly developed Ceratopsia characterized by the couple formed by the parietal and squamosal neck shield, adjusted the teeth as with all Ceratopsia to a plant-based diet.

The fossil remains of this dinosaur were found in the Two Medicine Formation in Montana, USA, and first described in 2004. It was the first basal Neoceratopsia, whose remains were found in a bone bed ( " bone stock " ) - at the Ceratopsidae such findings, however, are more common. The name derives from the Greek words prenes ( = " inclined wrong " ) and keratops ( = " horn face" ), a common name component of ceratopsians, from. Type species and only known species is P. pieganensis. The Fund will (middle Campanian ) dated to the Late Cretaceous to an age of around 81-76 million years ago.

A preliminary cladistic investigation of the describer assigns Prenoceratops clearly into the Leptoceratopsidae.