Mesozoic Quick Fact Series:
Horns, Beaks & Impressive Frills: The Mighty Ceratopsians
Introducing the remarkable Triceratops and its kin…
Mesozoic Quick Fact Series (MQFS) aims to provide interesting facts about various groups of extinct animals in a fun and readable way. We will focus on the highlights, so you don’t need to read extensive, time-consuming texts!
In this article, we will take a quick overview of Ceratopsia, a successful group of ornithischian dinosaurs that thrived in the Northern Hemisphere during the Late Cretaceous Period.
Let’s jump right through!
Starting with the basics…
The name Ceratopsia translates to ‘horned faces’. It is derived from the Greek kéras meaning ‘horn’ and ópsis meaning ‘appearance, view’ and by extension ‘face’. Although ‘-ceratops’ is the preferred suffix used in ceratopsian names, this is not always the case. Styracosaurus, Centrosaurus, Chasmosaurus, and Psittacosaurus are famous ceratopsians that don’t follow the aforementioned trend.
Early members of the group were small bipedal animals. Later forms, though, became very large quadrupeds and developed elaborate facial horns and frills extending over their neck.
