Open Paleo

Graciliceratops

Sereno, 2000 GRAS-i-li-SAYR-a-tops

Slender horned face; from Latin gracilis (slender) and Greek keras (horn) and ops (face)

100.5–83.6 million years ago Cenomanian–Santonian, Late Cretaceous
Late Cretaceous stages

Graciliceratops is a genus of neoceratopsian dinosaurs that lived in Asia during the Late Cretaceous period.

Diagnosis

  1. Very slender median and posterior parietal frill margins, much more delicate than in related taxa
  2. High tibiofemoral ratio (1.2:1)
  3. Frill extends well posterior to occiput, with lateral margins formed by a well-developed posterior process of the squamosal
  4. Well demarcated scar on the jugal and quadratojugal indicating a large epijugal was present

Species

Graciliceratops mongoliensis Sereno, 2000

Type species

Named for Mongolia, the country where the holotype was discovered in the Bayanshiree Formation.

Holotype
ZPAL MgD-I/156 , Institute of Paleobiology, Polish Academy of Sciences
Material
Articulated skeleton, immature individual (disarticulated presacral neural arches and unfused sacral centra), including partial skull.
Horizon
Bayanshiree Formation, Cenomanian–Santonian, Late Cretaceous , 100.5–83.6 million years ago The age of the containing rock unit; no finer age has been published.
Locality
Shireegiin Gashuun, Ömnögovi, Mongolia Maryanska and Osmolska (1975) name the beds only as an informal Sheeregeen Gashoon formation, and Maryanska (1977) then assigns them to the Bayn Shireh svita. Jerzykiewicz and Russell (1991) list the locality among the formation's own, and Currie and Eberth (1993) keep it in a separate faunal column, finding little overlap between the two areas' faunas. Averianov and Sues (2020) still write of Sheeregeen Gashoon beds in quotation marks. No age has been published for this taxon independently of its formation.

References

  1. Sereno, P. C. (2000). The fossil record, systematics and evolution of pachycephalosaurs and ceratopsians from Asia. The Age of Dinosaurs in Russia and Mongolia (Benton, M. J.; Shishkin, M. A.; Unwin, D. M.; Kurochkin, E. N., eds.) 480-516. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

    Erects the genus on the articulated skeleton from Shireegiin Gashuun. Names no formation, and gives a Campanian age only in a summary table.

    sereno2000a
  2. Arbour, V. M.; Currie, P. J. (2015). Systematics, phylogeny and palaeobiogeography of the ankylosaurid dinosaurs. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 14(5): 385-444. Informa UK Limited. doi:10.1080/14772019.2015.1059985

    Places Shiregin Gashun in the Bayanshiree Formation, for Maleevus from the same locality.

    arbour2015a
  3. Weishampel, D. B.; Dodson, P.; Osmólska, H. (eds.) (2004). The Dinosauria, Second Edition. University of California Press, Berkeley.

    Lists the locality's fauna, including this species, under the Shireegiin Gashuun Formation and gives it a Cenomanian-Santonian age.

    weishampel2004a
  4. Jones, B. (2026). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs: Ornithischians. Princeton University Press.

    Source of the appearance features.

    jones2026a
  5. Jerzykiewicz, T.; Russell, D. A. (1991). Late Mesozoic stratigraphy and vertebrates of the Gobi Basin. Cretaceous Research 12(4): 345-377. Elsevier. doi:10.1016/0195-6671(91)90015-5

    Lists Shiregin Gashun among the Bayn Shiren Formation's localities, and reports the unit from the Shiregin Gashun depression.

    jerzykiewicz1991a
  6. Maryańska, T. (1977). Ankylosauridae (Dinosauria) from Mongolia. Palaeontologia Polonica 37: 85-151.

    Assigns the Sheeregeen Gashoon sediments to the Bayn Shireh svita, two years after co-coining the informal name for them.

    maryańska1977a
  7. Averianov, A. O.; Lopatin, A. V. (2020). An unusual new sauropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Mongolia. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 18(12): 1009-1032. Informa UK Limited. doi:10.1080/14772019.2020.1716402

    Still treats the beds as an informal Sheeregeen Gashoon unit rather than assigning them to a formation.

    averianov2020a
  8. Maryańska, T.; Osmólska, H. (1975). Protoceratopsidae (Dinosauria) of Asia. Palaeontologia Polonica 33: 133-182. maryańska1975a
  9. Currie, P. J.; Eberth, D. A. (1993). Palaeontology, sedimentology and palaeoecology of the Iren Dabasu Formation (Upper Cretaceous), Inner Mongolia, People's Republic of China. Cretaceous Research 14(2): 127-144. Elsevier BV. doi:10.1006/cres.1993.1011 currie1993d