Open Paleo

Breviceratops

Kurzanov, 1990 BREV-i-SER-a-tops

From Latin brevis meaning 'short' + Greek keras (κέρας) meaning 'horn' + ops (ὤψ) meaning 'face'; overall meaning 'short horned face'.

85.7–66.0 million years ago Santonian–Maastrichtian, Late Cretaceous
Late Cretaceous stages

Breviceratops is a genus of protoceratopsid dinosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous in what is now the Baruungoyot Formation, Mongolia.

Diagnosis

  1. Premaxillary teeth retained
  2. Dentary without a sharp buccal crest
  3. Well-developed accessory antorbital fenestra

Species

Breviceratops kozlowskii (Maryańska & Osmólska, 1975)

Type species

First named as Protoceratops kozlowskii

Named for Polish paleontologist Roman Kozłowski, retaining the epithet from the original species name Protoceratops kozlowskii.

Holotype
ZPAL MgD-I/117 , Institute of Paleobiology, Polish Academy of Sciences
Material
Immature skull with mandible and an associated fragmentary postcranial skeleton.
Horizon
Baruungoyot Formation, Santonian–Maastrichtian, Late Cretaceous , 85.7–66.0 million years ago
Locality
Khulsan, Ömnögovi, Mongolia

Synonyms

  • Protoceratops kozlowskii reassigned

    Original combination by Maryańska and Osmólska (1975); Kurzanov (1990) erected the new genus Breviceratops for the species.

References

  1. Maryańska, T.; Osmólska, H. (1975). Protoceratopsidae (Dinosauria) of Asia. Palaeontologia Polonica 33: 133-182.

    Original description of the species as Protoceratops kozlowskii, based on the holotype ZPAL MgD-I/117 and referred juvenile material from Khulsan.

    maryańska1975a
  2. Kurzanov, S. M. (1990). A new genus of protoceratopsid from the Late Cretaceous of Mongolia. Paleontologicheskii Zhurnal (4): 91-97.

    Erected the genus Breviceratops for Protoceratops kozlowskii, retaining ZPAL MgD-I/117 as the holotype.

    kurzanov1990a
  3. Czepiński, Ł. (2019). Ontogeny and variation of a protoceratopsid dinosaur Bagaceratops rozhdestvenskyi from the Late Cretaceous of the Gobi Desert. Historical Biology 32: 1394-1421. doi:10.1080/08912963.2019.1593404

    Restricted the species to the holotype and ZPAL MgD-I/116, moved most referred material to Bagaceratops, left ZPAL MgD-I/119, 121 and 122 as Protoceratopsidae indet., and upheld it as distinct.

    czepiński2019a
  4. Gradziński, R.; Jerzykiewicz, T. (1972). Additional geographical and geological data from the Polish-Mongolian Palaeontological Expeditions. Palaeontologia Polonica 27: 17-30.

    Maps the expedition's numbered Khulsan sites. Its sites 4 and 5 are the two small protoceratopsid skulls the describing paper cites, without distinguishing which yielded the holotype.

    gradziński1972a
  5. Jones, B. (2026). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs: Ornithischians. Princeton University Press.

    Source of the body length, mass, and hip height estimates, and the appearance features.

    jones2026a