Yamaceratops

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{{Taxobox
| name = Yamaceratops
| fossil_range = Late Cretaceous

Late Cretaceous

The Late Cretaceous is the youngest of two epochs in which the Cretaceous period is divided in the geologic timescale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous series...

| image = Yamaceratops BW.jpg
| regnum = Animal

Animal

Animals are a major group of mostly multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the kingdom Animalia or Metazoa. Their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later on in their life. Most animals are motile, meaning they can move spontaneously...

ia
| phylum = Chordata

Chordate

Chordates are animals which are either vertebrates or one of several closely related invertebrates. They are united by having, for at least some period of their life cycle, a notochord, a hollow dorsal nerve cord, pharyngeal slits, an endostyle, and a post-anal tail...

| classis = Sauropsida

Reptile

Reptiles, or members of the class Reptilia, are air-breathing, generally "cold-blooded" amniotes that generally have skin covered in scales or scutes. They are tetrapods and lay amniote eggs, whose embryos are surrounded by the amnion membrane...

| superordo = Dinosaur

Dinosaur

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Descendant taxon Aves survives to present.}}|image = field_dinos_2.jpg...

ia
| ordo = Ornithischia

Ornithischia

Ornithischia or Predentata is an extinct order of beaked, herbivorous dinosaurs. The name ornithischia is derived from the Greek ornitheos meaning 'of a bird' and ischion meaning 'hip joint'...

| subordo = Marginocephalia

Marginocephalia

Marginocephalia is a clade of ornithischian dinosaurs that includes the thick-skulled pachycephalosaurids, and horned ceratopsians. They were all herbivores, walking on two or four legs, and are characterized by a bony ridge or frill the back of the skull...

| infraordo = Ceratopsia

Ceratopsia

Ceratopsia or Ceratopia is a group of herbivorous, beaked dinosaurs which thrived in what are now North America and Asia, during the Cretaceous Period, although ancestral forms lived earlier, in the Jurassic. Early members such as Psittacosaurus were small and bipedal...

| familie = ?Archaeoceratopsidae

Archaeoceratopsidae

The Archaeoceratopsidae constitutes a family of primitive ceratopsian dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of China.The group had features similar to the psittacosaurs and leptoceratopsians. They had small frills and barely any horns, only on the sides, and a bump on their snouts. This family...

| genus = Yamaceratops
|genus_authority=Makovicky & Norell, 2006
|subdivision_ranks=Species

Species

In biology, a species is:* a taxonomic rank or* a unit at that rank ....

|subdivision=

• Y. dorngobiensis Makovicky & Norell, 2006 (type
  Type species
  In taxonomy, a type species is a technical phrase, involved in the application of formal names...
  
  )

}}

Yamaceratops is a genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a taxonomic unit used in the classification of living and fossil organisms. The term comes from Latin genus "descent, family, type, gender" , cognate with – genos, "race, stock, kin" ..In addition, genus is a taxonomic rank in the hierarchy In biology, a genus (plural:...

 of dinosaur

Dinosaur

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Descendant taxon Aves survives to present.}}|image = field_dinos_2.jpg...

 from the Late Cretaceous

Cretaceous

The Cretaceous , Latin language for "chalky", usually abbreviated K for its German translation Kreide , is a geologic period and system from circa to million years ago . In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous follows on the Jurassic period and is followed by the Paleogene period of the...

. It was a primitive ceratopsian which lived in the Gobi Desert

Gobi Desert

The Gobi is the largest desert region in Asia. It covers parts of northern and northwestern China, and of southern Mongolia...

 of Mongolia

Mongolia

Mongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It borders Russia to the north and the People's Republic of China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only 24 miles from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator,...

. Initially, the rocks it was found in were thought to be from the Early Cretaceous

Early Cretaceous

The Early Cretaceous or the Lower Cretaceous , is the earlier or lower of the two major divisions of the Cretaceous...

, but the age was reevaluted in 2009.

The type species

Type species

In taxonomy, a type species is a technical phrase, involved in the application of formal names...

, Yamaceratops dorngobiensis, was described by P.J. Makovicky and M.A. Norell in September, 2006. The authors consider the animal to have had an intermediate phylogenetic position

Cladistics

Cladistics is a form of biological systematics which classifies living organisms on the basis of shared ancestry...

 between 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. It was discovered in China by a team of American and Chinese scientists...

and Archaeoceratops

Archaeoceratops

Archaeoceratops, meaning "ancient horned face", was a genus of basal neoceratopsian dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of north central China. It appears to have been bipedal and quite small with a comparatively large head...

within Neoceratopia. Examination of the frill

Neck frill

Neck frill is the popular term for the relatively extensive margin seen on the back of the heads of reptiles with either a bony support such as those present on the skulls of dinosaurs of the suborder Marginocephalia or a cartilaginous one as in the Frill-necked Lizard...

 of Yamaceratops has convinced the authors that the frill was not used for display, and that the fossils "[hint] at a more complex evolutionary history for ceratopsian frills."

The genus name refers to Yama

Yama

Yama , also known as Yamarāja in India, Shinje in Tibet, Yanluowang or simply Yan in China, and Enma Dai-Ō in Japan, is the lord of death, first recorded in the Vedas. The name Yanluo is a shortened Chinese transliteration of the Sanskrit term Yama Rājā, or "King Yama"...

, a Tibet

Tibet

Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north of the Himalayas. It is home to the indigenous Tibetan people, and to some other ethnic groups such as Monpas and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han Chinese people. Tibet is the highest region on earth, with an average...

an Buddhist deity; the species name to the Eastern Gobi. The holotype

Holotype

A holotype is one of several possible biological types. A type is what fixes a name to a taxon. A holotype is a single physical example of an organism, known to have been used when the species was formally described...

IGM 100/1315 consists of a partial skull; other material has been found in 2002 and 2003 and has been ascribed to the genus.

A fossilized embryo found within an ornithischian eggshell from sediments where Yamaceratops is common may belong to this genus.

External links

• Dinosaur Mailing List announcement of the description (contains full abstract of the paper)
• Description and Image (in German)

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