Fully Articulated Psittacosaurus Dinosaur in Death Pose

Description: Presented is an excellent representative obtained from the limited number of highly prized Psittacosaurus ever offered to the public. It is a fully articulated dorsal soecimen, including all four limbs skull and tail. Note the complete vertebrae with many ribs showing. Three digits on the front right leg are present and all four on the right rear leg. Based on the size, it is most likely a juvenile. The specimen was found in the light colored mudstone matrix, typical of the region and preservation zone, with bones having a light pinkish tone.

The Psittacosaurus was imported to the USA over 10 years ago, and is fully legal. It is part of a large estate fossil collection that is being liquidated.
Psittacosaurus is a genus of psittacosaurid ceratopsian dinosaur known from the Early Cretaceous Period (about 130 to 100 million years ago) of what is now Asia. This genus of bipedal herbivorous dinosaurs has many known species, some ten of which are known from fossils found in different regions of modern-day China, Mongolia and Russia. Psittacosaurids are believed to be basal to almost all ceratopsians except Yinlong and members of the Chaoyangsauridae family. While Psittacosauridae was an early branch of the ceratopsian family tree, Psittacosaurus itself was probably not directly ancestral to any other groups of ceratopsians. All other ceratopsians retained the fifth digit of the hand, a plesiomorphy or primitive trait, in contrast to four digits on the hands of the Psittacosaurus.

All Psittacosaurus are rather small dinosaurs having a prominent powerful beak on the upper jaw. As early ceratopsians, they underwent a number of novel adaptations, they also shared many anatomical features with later ceratopsians, such as Protoceratops and the elephant-sized Triceratops. For example, the skull of Psittacosaurus was highly modified compared to other ornithischian dinosaurs of its time. The skull was extremely tall and short, with an almost round profile in some species. The pronounced beak upper and lower jaws appears not too unlike that of modern parrots. Psittacosaurus probably ate plants like cycads aided by its beak. While bipedal, it probably moved with all four legs while grazing. using forelimbs to get food from bushes or tree branches. Despite many specimens for study, their taxonomic placement among dinosaurs remains uncertain, though they were putatively social, herding animals.

Please contact me if you have further questions. Richie Kurkewicz