Name: Ornithischia, Ceratopsia, Psittacosauridae; Psittacosaurus sinensis
Age: Lower Cretaceous Aptian/Albia Stage (~110-115 m.y.a.)
Size (25.4 mm = 1 inch): 95 mm long, 65 mm high, 75 mm wide acrossMatrix: 98 mm by 62 mm
Location: Nei Mongol (Inner Mongolia), China
Code: BCF016
Price: $595.00 - Sold
 Description:
This is the well-preserved skull of an early Ceratopsian dinosaur
known as Psittacosaurus sinensis. H.F. Osborn named the genus in the
early 1920s from specimens collected by the famous Central Asiatic
Expeditions led by Roy Chapman Andrews. Psittacosaurus derives its
name from its parrot-like rostrum (beak), a feature shared with the
great horned dinosaurs that came 20 plus million years later. It was
a maximum of 2 meters in length, and was primarily bipedal despite
its well-developed forelegs. It presumably used its forelegs to gather
in vegetation which it cropped with its sharp beak and pulverized
with its teeth (see the close-ups for a few still found in the right
jaw). Several examples of brooding behavior in dinosaurs have now
been found. A recent article in Nature describes an adult Psittacosaur
found with 34 presumed hatchlings in a bowl-like depression thought
to be a nest, a strong indication that this brood care may have been
more widespread than once thought. |
