Open Paleo

Zhuchengceratops

Xu et al., 2010 JOO-chang-SEH-ruh-tops

Named for Zhucheng, the city in Shandong Province, China where the fossil was found, combined with Latinized Greek 'ceratops' meaning 'horned face'.

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

Zhuchengceratops is a genus of extinct leptoceratopsid ceratopsian that lived during the Upper Cretaceous of modern-day China. It was first described in 2010, by Xu and colleagues, who created the binomial Zhuchengceratops inexpectus. The name is derived from the location of Zhucheng, the Latinized-Greek ceratops, or "horned face", and the unexpected articulated nature of the holotype. The skeleton was found in the Wangshi Group, which is of Late Cretaceous age, and most fossils are only disarticulated bones of Shantungosaurus.

Diagnosis

  1. Maxilla with posteroventrally oriented edentulous posterior process
  2. Mandible extremely deep (mid-length height one-third of mandibular length) and very thin transversely
  3. Medial surface of mandible with two large fossae separated by thick curved ridge along dentary-splenial contact
  4. Predentary sub-vertically oriented (posterior edge ~75 degrees to tooth row in lateral view)
  5. Anterior end of dentary deeper than coronoid region
  6. Middle cervical ribs bifurcated with prominent accessory dorsal process

Species

Zhuchengceratops inexpectus Xu et al., 2010

Type species

From Latin 'inexpectus' meaning 'unexpected', referring to the surprising discovery of the articulated skeleton amid the otherwise largely disarticulated Zhucheng dinosaur assemblage.

Holotype
ZCDM V0015 , Zhucheng Dinosaur Museum
Material
Partial, articulated skeleton including partial maxillae, partial quadratojugal, jugal, quadrate, ectopterygoid, pterygoid, nearly complete mandibles, anterior 14 presacral vertebrae with ribs, and fragments
Horizon
Wangshi Group, Campanian, Late Cretaceous , 83.6–72.2 million years ago
Locality
Kugou, 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. Xu, X.; Wang, K.; Zhao, X.; Sullivan, C.; Chen, S. (2010). A New Leptoceratopsid (Ornithischia: Ceratopsia) from the Upper Cretaceous of Shandong, China and Its Implications for Neoceratopsian Evolution. PLoS ONE 5(11): e13835. Public Library of Science (PLoS). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0013835 xu2010c
  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

    Dates the sandstones of the Kugou bone beds by detrital zircon and places them in the lower Hongtuya Formation of the Wangshi Group.

    an2015a