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Leptoceratopsidae
 
 
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The family Leptoceratopsidae, its name derived from the type genus Leptoceratops, is a group of several small neoceratopsian genera which appear not to belong to the 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...
 Protoceratopsidae. They resembled, and were closely related to, other ceratopsids, but all discovered species are generally smaller and more primitive. Leptoceratopsids have so far been found exclusively in the Late Cretaceous of Asia and Western North America, with the exception of a single controversial bone from Australia.

The Leptoceratopsidae are predominantly North American in occurrence, with most described genera found there: Leptoceratops
Leptoceratops

Leptoceratops , was a primitive ceratopsian dinosaur genus from the Late Cretaceous Period of what is now Western North America, at the same time as its giant relatives Triceratops and Torosaurus....
, Montanoceratops
Montanoceratops

Montanoceratops was a small ceratopsian dinosaur. It lived during the early Maastrichtian of the late Cretaceous Period. Its fossils, as its name indicates, have been found in Montana, USA....
 and Prenoceratops
Prenoceratops

Prenoceratops, is a genus of dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Period . Its fossils have been found in the Two Medicine Formation in the present-day U.S....
.






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The family Leptoceratopsidae, its name derived from the type genus Leptoceratops, is a group of several small neoceratopsian genera which appear not to belong to the 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...
 Protoceratopsidae. They resembled, and were closely related to, other ceratopsids, but all discovered species are generally smaller and more primitive. Leptoceratopsids have so far been found exclusively in the Late Cretaceous of Asia and Western North America, with the exception of a single controversial bone from Australia.

The Leptoceratopsidae are predominantly North American in occurrence, with most described genera found there: Leptoceratops
Leptoceratops

Leptoceratops , was a primitive ceratopsian dinosaur genus from the Late Cretaceous Period of what is now Western North America, at the same time as its giant relatives Triceratops and Torosaurus....
, Montanoceratops
Montanoceratops

Montanoceratops was a small ceratopsian dinosaur. It lived during the early Maastrichtian of the late Cretaceous Period. Its fossils, as its name indicates, have been found in Montana, USA....
 and Prenoceratops
Prenoceratops

Prenoceratops, is a genus of dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Period . Its fossils have been found in the Two Medicine Formation in the present-day U.S....
. There is evidence of a much wider geographical occurrence, with Udanoceratops
Udanoceratops

Udanoceratops is a genus of ceratopsian dinosaur. It lived during the Late Cretaceous Period in the late Santonian or early Campanian faunal stages....
 in Mongolia, and a leptoceratopsid ulna, named Serendipaceratops
Serendipaceratops

Serendipaceratops is a genus of early ceratopsian dinosaur from the early Cretaceous Period of Australia. Only about 2 meters long, it probably had only a very small neck frill and no horns, unlike the more familiar Triceratops....
, from Victoria
Victoria (Australia)

File:Map Victoria Aboriginal tribes .jpgVictoria is a States and territories of Australia located in the southeastern corner of Australia. It is the smallest mainland state in area but the most Population density and urbanised....
 in Australia.

Leptoceratopsids range in age from Udanoceratops
Udanoceratops

Udanoceratops is a genus of ceratopsian dinosaur. It lived during the Late Cretaceous Period in the late Santonian or early Campanian faunal stages....
, of the late Santonian
Santonian

The Santonian is a faunal stage of the Late Cretaceous epoch . It spans the time between 85.8 ? 0.7 mya and 83.5 ? 0.7 mya.According to the International Commission on Stratigraphy, its start is defied by the appearance of the Inoceramidae bivalve Cladoceramus undulatoplicatus....
 or early Campanian
Campanian

The Campanian is a faunal stage on the geologic time scale occurring from 83.5 ? 0.7 annum to 70.6 ? 0.6 Ma .It is the middle stage of the Late Cretaceous epoch ....
, to Leptoceratops
Leptoceratops

Leptoceratops , was a primitive ceratopsian dinosaur genus from the Late Cretaceous Period of what is now Western North America, at the same time as its giant relatives Triceratops and Torosaurus....
, right at the end of the Cretaceous
Cretaceous

The Cretaceous , usually abbreviated K for its German translation Kreide, is a geologic period from circa to million years ago . In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous follows on the Jurassic period and is followed by the Paleogene period....
 in the late Maastrichtian
Maastrichtian

The Maastrichtian is the last faunal stage of the Cretaceous geologic period, and therefore of the Mesozoic geologic era. It spanned from 70.6 ? 0.6 annum to 65.5 ? 0.3 Ma ....
.

The family, implicitly named by the naming of subfamily Leptoceratopsinae by Nopsca in 1923, was explicitly named by Mackovicky in 2001, when defining a clade Leptoceratopsidae as the group consisting of Leptoceratops gracilis and all species closer to Leptoceratops than to Triceratops horridus.