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Auroraceratops
 
 
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Auroraceratops, meaning "dawn horned face", is a genus
Genus

A genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the classification of living and fossil organisms. The taxonomic ranks are domain , kingdom , phylum, class , order , family , genus, and species....
 of basal
Basal (phylogenetics)

In phylogenetics, a basal clade is the earliest clade to branch in a larger clade; it appears at the base of a cladogram.A basal group form an outgroup to the rest of the clade, such as in the following example:...
 neoceratopsian
Ceratopsia

Ceratopsia or Ceratopia is a group of herbivore, beaked dinosaurs which thrived in what are now North America and Asia, during the Cretaceous Period , although ancestral forms lived earlier, in the Jurassic....
 dinosaur
Dinosaur

Dinosaurs were the dominant vertebrate animals of Landform ecosystems for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic Period until the end of the Cretaceous Period , when most of them became extinct in the Cretaceous?Tertiary extinction event....
, from the Early Cretaceous
Early Cretaceous

The Early Cretaceous or the Lower Cretaceous , is the earlier of the two major divisions of the Cretaceous Period . It began about 146 million years ago....
 (Aptian
Aptian

Aptian stage is a faunal stage of the Early Cretaceous epoch in the geologic timescale, that extends from 125.0 ? 1.0 annum to 112.0 ? 1.0 Ma , approximately....
 age) of north central China
China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
. The etymology
Etymology

Etymology is the study of the roots and history of words; and how their form and meaning have changed over time.In languages with a long detailed history, etymology makes use of philology, the study of how words change from culture to culture over time....
 of the generic name refers to its status as an early ceratopsian and also to Dawn Dodson, wife of Peter Dodson
Peter Dodson

Peter Dodson is an American paleontology who has published many papers and written and collaborated on books about dinosaurs. Dodson described Avaceratops in 1986....
, one of the palaeontologists who described it.

only known specimen was found in the Xinminbao Group
Xinminbao Group

The Xinminbao Group is a group of geological formations in north central China. They occur across a large depression between the Altai mountains of Mongolia to the north and the Qilian Shan of the Qinghai Plateau to the south, in the Gonpoquan and Suanjingze Basin s, and also in the neighbouring Jiuquan Basin....
, Gongpoquan Basin
Basin (geology)

A structural basin is a large-scale structural formation of rock strata formed by tectonic warping of previously flat lying stratum. Structural basins are geological depressions, and are the inverse of dome s....
 of the Mazong Shan
Mazong Shan

The Mazong Shan is a minor mountain range of northern Gansu, between the Altay range to the north and the Qilian range to the south. The Mazong Shan peak rises to 2584 m....
 area of Gansu Province, north central China.






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Encyclopedia


Auroraceratops, meaning "dawn horned face", is a genus
Genus

A genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the classification of living and fossil organisms. The taxonomic ranks are domain , kingdom , phylum, class , order , family , genus, and species....
 of basal
Basal (phylogenetics)

In phylogenetics, a basal clade is the earliest clade to branch in a larger clade; it appears at the base of a cladogram.A basal group form an outgroup to the rest of the clade, such as in the following example:...
 neoceratopsian
Ceratopsia

Ceratopsia or Ceratopia is a group of herbivore, beaked dinosaurs which thrived in what are now North America and Asia, during the Cretaceous Period , although ancestral forms lived earlier, in the Jurassic....
 dinosaur
Dinosaur

Dinosaurs were the dominant vertebrate animals of Landform ecosystems for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic Period until the end of the Cretaceous Period , when most of them became extinct in the Cretaceous?Tertiary extinction event....
, from the Early Cretaceous
Early Cretaceous

The Early Cretaceous or the Lower Cretaceous , is the earlier of the two major divisions of the Cretaceous Period . It began about 146 million years ago....
 (Aptian
Aptian

Aptian stage is a faunal stage of the Early Cretaceous epoch in the geologic timescale, that extends from 125.0 ? 1.0 annum to 112.0 ? 1.0 Ma , approximately....
 age) of north central China
China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
. The etymology
Etymology

Etymology is the study of the roots and history of words; and how their form and meaning have changed over time.In languages with a long detailed history, etymology makes use of philology, the study of how words change from culture to culture over time....
 of the generic name refers to its status as an early ceratopsian and also to Dawn Dodson, wife of Peter Dodson
Peter Dodson

Peter Dodson is an American paleontology who has published many papers and written and collaborated on books about dinosaurs. Dodson described Avaceratops in 1986....
, one of the palaeontologists who described it.

Discovery and species

The only known specimen was found in the Xinminbao Group
Xinminbao Group

The Xinminbao Group is a group of geological formations in north central China. They occur across a large depression between the Altai mountains of Mongolia to the north and the Qilian Shan of the Qinghai Plateau to the south, in the Gonpoquan and Suanjingze Basin s, and also in the neighbouring Jiuquan Basin....
, Gongpoquan Basin
Basin (geology)

A structural basin is a large-scale structural formation of rock strata formed by tectonic warping of previously flat lying stratum. Structural basins are geological depressions, and are the inverse of dome s....
 of the Mazong Shan
Mazong Shan

The Mazong Shan is a minor mountain range of northern Gansu, between the Altay range to the north and the Qilian range to the south. The Mazong Shan peak rises to 2584 m....
 area of Gansu Province, north central China. The type species
Type species

In taxonomy, a type species is the species that originally defined a genus . It is an individual specimen that fixes the name of a genus . Two different definitions are used interchangeably, in a general term and a botanical term....
, A. rugosus, was described by You, Li, Ji, Lamanna, and Dodson in 2005. The specific descriptor, "rugosus", Latin for "rough", refers to the various rugose areas on the surface of both skull and jaw, namely the wrinkled expansion of the lacrimal bone
Lacrimal bone

The lacrimal bone, the smallest and most fragile bone of the face, is situated at the front part of the medial wall of the Orbit . It has two surfaces and four borders....
 distinctive of this animal. Auroraceratops is the second basal neoceratopsian to be found in the Mazong Shan area, after Archaeoceratops.

The type
Biological type

In biology, a type is that which fixes a name to a taxon. Depending on the Nomenclature Codes which is applied to the organism in question, a type may be a specimen, culture, illustration, description or taxon....
 specimen, IG-2004-VD-001, consists of a nearly complete subadult skull lacking the rostral bone
Rostral bone

The rostral bone is the edentulous dorsal component of the skeleton of the beak, unique to the ceratopsian dinosaurs....
 and parietal
Parietal

Parietal may refer to:*Parietal lobe of the brain*Parietal bone of the skull*Parietal scales of a snake lie in the general region of the parietal bone....
 crest.

Description

Though most other neoceratopsians are characterized by a long, narrow snout, Auroraceratops has a shorter wider one. The 20 cm (8 in) skull itself is rather flat and wide. The premaxilla
Premaxilla

The incisive bone is the portion of the maxilla adjacent to the incisors.The term premaxilla can also be used to refer to the incisive bone....
e have at least two pairs of striated fang-like teeth. Paired rugose areas, very probably covered in keratin
Keratin

Keratins are a family of fibrous protein; tough and insoluble, they form the hard but mineral structures found in reptiles, birds, amphibians and mammals....
 in life, are in front of the eyes and on the jugal
Jugal

The jugal is a skull bone found in most reptiles, amphibians, and birds. In mammals, the jugal is often called the malar or zygomatic bone. It is connected to the quadratojugal and maxilla, as well as other bones, which may vary by species....
 with corresponding areas on the lower jaw. These roughened knobs were likely to have been used for inter- and intra-specific interactions
Display (zoology)

Display is a form of Ethology, linked to survival of the species in various ways. Some species use display as a form of courtship, with the male usually having a striking feature that is distinguished by colour, shape or size, used to attract a female....
. While they would not have been much use as a physical defense against predators, another possible function for these structures would be in pushing or butting contests between members of the same species either for mating rights or social disputes.

Auroraceratops is a rather derived moderate-sized basal neoceratopsian that adds diversity to that clade
Clade

A clade is a term used in modern alpha taxonomy, the scientific classification of living and fossil organisms, to describe a monophyletic group, defined as a group consisting of a single common ancestor and all its descendants.The term "monophyletic group" is used in this article in the conventional sense of "an a...
, displaying skull features not present in Archaeoceratops
Archaeoceratops

Archaeoceratops, meaning "ancient horned face", was a genus of basal ceratopsia#phylogeny dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of north central China....
 or Liaoceratops
Liaoceratops

Liaoceratops, meaning "Liao Horned Face", is a newly discovered dinosaur believed to be an early cousin to the horned ceratopsians. It lived in the early Cretaceous, some 130 million years ago....
.