Open Paleo

Turanoceratops

Nessov et al., 1989 too-RAHN-o-SER-a-tops

Combines 'Turan', an old Persian name for Turkestan (the region of discovery in Uzbekistan), with Greek 'ceratops' meaning 'horned face'.

93.9–89.8 million years ago Turonian, Late Cretaceous
Late Cretaceous stages

Turanoceratops is a genus of herbivorous ceratopsian dinosaur from the late Cretaceous Bissekty Formation of Uzbekistan. The fossils dated from the mid-late Turonian stage, roughly 90 million years ago. The skull bore a pair of long brow horns like those seen in the Ceratopsidae, although Turanoceratops appears to have been transitional between earlier ceratopsians and ceratopsids, and not a ceratopsid itself.

Under dispute

Turanoceratops tardabilis is the basis of a long dispute over the first Asian ceratopsid. Sues and Averianov (2009) recovered it within Ceratopsidae as the sister to Centrosaurinae, but Farke and colleagues (2009) reanalyzed it as the sister taxon to Ceratopsidae lying outside it — a position independently recovered by the describers of Sinoceratops (Xu and colleagues, 2010).

Diagnosis

  1. Tooth crowns with variably developed secondary ridges, unlike the condition in more derived ceratopsids
  2. Only two or three teeth in each vertical dental file, fewer than in more derived ceratopsids
  3. Teeth double-rooted, unlike Zuniceratops and more basal neoceratopsians
  4. Frontal excluded from the orbital margin, unlike more basal neoceratopsians
  5. Shallow supracranial cavity complex present, unlike more basal neoceratopsians

Species

Turanoceratops tardabilis Nessov et al., 1989

Type species

From Latin 'tardabilis' meaning 'retarding', referring to the protracted research on the taxon before its formal description.

Holotype
CCMGE 251/12457 , F.N. Chernyshev Central Museum of Geological Exploration
Material
Incomplete left maxilla.
Horizon
lower Bissekty Formation, Turonian, Late Cretaceous , 93.9–89.8 million years ago
Locality
CBI-27, Dzharakuduk II, Navoiy, Uzbekistan

References

  1. Nessov, L. A.; Kaznyshkina, L. F.; Cherepanov, G. O. (1989). [Mesozoic ceratopsian dinosaurs and crocodiles of central Asia]. Theoretical and Applied Aspects of Modern Paleontology (Bogdanova, T. N.; Khozatsky, L. I., eds.) 144-154. Nauka, Leningrad. nessov1989a
  2. Jones, B. (2026). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs: Ornithischians. Princeton University Press.

    Source of the hip height estimate, and the appearance features.

    jones2026a
  3. Sues, H. D.; Averianov, A. (2009). Turanoceratops tardabilis—the first ceratopsid dinosaur from Asia. Naturwissenschaften 96(5): 645-652. doi:10.1007/s00114-009-0518-9

    Recovered Turanoceratops within Ceratopsidae as sister taxon to Centrosaurinae

    sues2009b
  4. Farke, A. A.; Sampson, S. D.; Forster, C. A.; Loewen, M. A. (2009). Turanoceratops tardabilis—sister taxon, but not a ceratopsid. Naturwissenschaften 96(7): 869-870. doi:10.1007/s00114-009-0543-8

    Reanalysis placed Turanoceratops as sister taxon to Ceratopsidae, outside the clade

    farke2009a
  5. Xu, X.; Wang, K.; Zhao, X.; Li, D. (2010). First ceratopsid dinosaur from China and its biogeographical implications. Chinese Science Bulletin 55(16): 1631-1635. Springer Science and Business Media LLC. doi:10.1007/s11434-009-3614-5

    Description of Sinoceratops; its phylogenetic analysis independently recovered Turanoceratops outside Ceratopsidae, lacking key ceratopsid synapomorphies.

    xu2010e