Open Paleo

Leptoceratopsidae

Nopcsa, 1923 Type genus Leptoceratops

Its genera lived 85.7–66.0 million years ago Late Cretaceous
Late Cretaceous stages

Leptoceratopsidae is a family of neoceratopsian dinosaurs known from Asia, western North America, and possibly Europe. Its members closely resembled the horned dinosaurs' other relatives, such as the protoceratopsids and ceratopsids, but were more primitive and generally smaller. Definitive leptoceratopsids lived during the Late Cretaceous, roughly 83 to 66 million years ago, with the group ranging in age from the late Santonian Gryphoceratops — the oldest and probably smallest known member — to Leptoceratops at the very end of the period. Fragmentary material from North Carolina and Sweden may extend the family's range into eastern North America and Europe, suggesting complex patterns of dispersal across the isolated landmasses of the time.

Diagnosis

  1. Deep, robust dentary with a high, laterally displaced coronoid process
  2. Short parietosquamosal frill lacking large fenestrae
  3. Absence of large supraorbital (brow) horns
  4. Marked lateral ridge on the surangular

Genera placed directly in Leptoceratopsidae

  • Cerasinops Chinnery & Horner, 2007 Campanian (83.6–72.2 Ma)United States
  • Ferrisaurus Arbour & Evans, 2019 Maastrichtian (72.2–66.0 Ma)Canada
  • Gremlin Ryan et al., 2023 Campanian (83.6–72.2 Ma)Canada
  • Gryphoceratops Ryan et al., 2012 Santonian (85.7–83.6 Ma)Canada
  • Ischioceratops He et al., 2015 Campanian (83.6–72.2 Ma)China
  • Leptoceratops Brown, 1914 Maastrichtian (72.2–66.0 Ma)Canada
  • Montanoceratops Sternberg, 1951 Campanian–Maastrichtian (83.6–66.0 Ma)United States
  • Prenoceratops Chinnery, 2004 Campanian (83.6–72.2 Ma)United States
  • Udanoceratops Kurzanov, 1992 Campanian (83.6–72.2 Ma)Mongolia
  • Unescoceratops Ryan et al., 2012 Campanian (83.6–72.2 Ma)Canada
  • Zhuchengceratops Xu et al., 2010 Campanian (83.6–72.2 Ma)China

References

  1. Nopcsa, F. (1923). Die Familien der Reptilien [The families of the reptiles]. Fortschritte der Geologie und Palaeontologie 2: 1-210.

    Listed the subfamily Leptoceratopsinae within Ceratopsidae, from which the family name takes its authorship by coordination.

    nopcsa1923a
  2. Madzia, D.; Arbour, V. M.; Boyd, C. A.; Farke, A. A.; Cruzado-Caballero, P.; Evans, D. C. (2021). The phylogenetic nomenclature of ornithischian dinosaurs. PeerJ 9: e12362. doi:10.7717/peerj.12362

    Provides the formal phylogenetic (maximum-clade) definition of Leptoceratopsidae.

    madzia2021a