Find the small ancestor of Triceratops

2002/03/21 Elhuyar Zientzia

• Paleontologia
• Arkeologia

In northeastern China has been found the complete skeleton of the dinosaur, known as Liaoceratops.

It is the oldest member of the family of ceremonies discovered. Throughout evolution, the Zeratops family was divided into two groups: psitacosaurids and neoceratopsives, and they have realized that Liaoceratops has a mixture of the characteristics of these two groups. With the analysis of these bones, scientists hope that many data will be obtained that illustrate the evolution of the family.

Liaoceratops is the size of a dog and, in addition to being a peak shaped end, has a reduced version of the ornamental collar, so known in Triceratops. Scientists have worked long and tended to find out what the role of neck decoration can be, a special feature of ceremonies. In the case of Liaoceratops it has been proposed as a joint point of the neck muscles.