Open Paleo

Ischioceratops

He et al., 2015 ISS-key-o-SEH-ruh-tops

From Greek ischion (hip/ischium bone) and keratops (horned face); meaning 'ischium horned face', referring to the peculiar shape of the ischium bones

83.6–72.2 million years ago Campanian, Late Cretaceous
Late Cretaceous stages

Ischioceratops is an extinct genus of small herbivorous ceratopsian dinosaur that lived approximately 77.3-73.5 million years ago during the latter part of the Cretaceous Period in what is now China.

Diagnosis

  1. Nine sacral vertebrae, more than any other basal non-ceratopsid ceratopsian but fewer than ceratopsids
  2. Ischium with robust shaft resembling recurved bow, flaring gradually to form subrectangular obturator process in middle portion
  3. Elliptical fenestra perforating the obturator process of ischium
  4. Knob-like distal expansion at ischial shaft end, expanded both dorsally and ventrally
  5. Neural spines of proximal caudals increasing in length toward middle part of tail, similar to Koreaceratops, Protoceratops, and Montanoceratops

Species

Ischioceratops zhuchengensis He et al., 2015

Type species

Named for Zhucheng, the city in Shandong Province, China, where the holotype was found.

Holotype
ZCDM V00016 , Zhucheng Dinosaur Museum
Material
Incomplete, partially articulated specimen comprising entire sacrum, ossified tendons, both halves of pelvis, anteriormost 15 caudal vertebrae in articulation, right femur, tibia and fibula
Horizon
Wangshi Group, Campanian, Late Cretaceous , 83.6–72.2 million years ago
Locality
Kugou, Zhucheng, Shandong, China The describing paper gives the Wangshi Group. Xing and colleagues (2014) place the Kugou bonebed at the transition from the Xingezhuang to the Hongtuya Formation, "possibly situated just below the boundary"; An and colleagues (2015) place the Kugou bone beds in the Hongtuya and date them Campanian from a maximum depositional age of 77.3 Ma.

References

  1. Xing, H.; Zhao, X.; Wang, K.; Li, D.; Chen, S.; Mallon, J. C.; Zhang, Y.; Xu, X. (2014). Comparative osteology and phylogenetic relationship of Edmontosaurus and Shantungosaurus (Dinosauria: Hadrosauridae) from the Upper Cretaceous of North America and East Asia. Acta Geologica Sinica (English Edition) 88(6): 1623-1652. doi:10.1111/1755-6724.12334

    Places the Kugou bonebed at "the transition from the Xingezhuang Formation to the overlying Hongtuya Formation".

    xing2014b
  2. He, Y.; Makovicky, P. J.; Wang, K.; Chen, S.; Sullivan, C.; Han, F.; Xu, X. (2015). A new leptoceratopsid (Ornithischia, Ceratopsia) with a unique ischium from the Upper Cretaceous of Shandong Province, China. PLOS ONE 10(12): e0144148. Public Library of Science (PLoS). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0144148 he2015a
  3. An, W.; Kuang, H. W.; Liu, Y. Q.; Peng, N.; Xu, K. M.; Xu, H.; Zhang, P.; Wang, K. B.; Chen, S. Q.; Zhang, Y. X. (2015). Detrital zircon dating and tracing the provenance of dinosaur bone beds from the Late Cretaceous Wangshi Group in Zhucheng, Shandong, East China. Journal of Palaeogeography 5(1): 72-99. doi:10.1016/j.jop.2015.11.002 an2015a