Protoceratops Andrewsi : A Horned Dinosaur : Discovery Channel

Protoceratops Andrewsi: Horned, Frilled Dinosaur Ancestor

By Tracy V. Wilson, HowStuffWorks

Protoceratops andrewsi was a four-legged, herbivorous dinosaur with a bony frill around the back of its neck. This made it look like a miniature version of Triceratops, only without the distinctive three-horned profile. It also looked a lot like a smaller version of its relative Protoceratops hellenikorhinus. P. andrewsi had a beaklike mouth, which it used to eat foliage.

Precursor to Horns

Protoceratops had a bump on its nose in the place where many later ceratopsians had horns. It also had thickened areas of bone above its eye sockets — another spot for horns in dinosaurs like Triceratops. For this reason, some researchers believe Protoceratops was an ancestor of many other horned, frilled dinosaurs.

A Case of Mistaken Identity

One of the first dinosaur eggs ever matched up with its species was, scientists believed, from a Protoceratops. The eggs had been found beneath a skeleton dubbed Oviraptor philoceratops or "egg stealer that likes ceratops." Researchers believed the dinosaur had been stealing the eggs when it died. In 1995, another team called this identification into question. It turns out that Oviraptor was probably guarding its own eggs rather than stealing the eggs of a Protoceratops.

Protoceratops vs. Velociraptor

Another major discovery occurred in 1971, when paleontologists found a unique Protoceratops fossil in the Gobi Desert. This specimen died while fighting a Velociraptor. The bones of the two dinosaurs show the Velociraptor attacking the Protoceratops' neck with its clawed toe. But Protoceratops wasn't going down without a fight — it bit and possibly broke Velociraptor's arm before both dinosaurs were buried in sediment that preserved their bodies mid-fight.

My Pet Protoceratops

If dinosaurs were alive today, Protoceratops might be one people would keep as pets or livestock. These dinosaurs didn't eat meat, so they wouldn't be a big threat to pets or children. They were also about the size of a sheep. However, being nuzzled by a Protoceratops might not be a pleasant experience — it could weigh at least two to four times as much as an adult sheep.

Dino Fast Facts

  Dinosaur Name: Protoceratops andrewsi

  Order, Suborder, Family: Ornithischia, Cerapoda, Protoceratopsidae

  Name Means: "first horned face," because it's believed to be the first of the ceratopsians

  Time: Late Cretaceous, 85 to 80 million years ago

  Location: Inner Mongolia; Mongolia

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Protoceratops Andrewsi: Horned, Frilled Dinosaur Ancestor

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