Bagaceratops Temporal range: Late Cretaceous,
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Skeletal reconstruction (including elements previously described as Magnirostris) | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Clade: | Dinosauria |
Clade: | †Ornithischia |
Clade: | †Coronosauria |
Family: | †Protoceratopsidae |
Genus: | †Bagaceratops Maryanska & Osmolska, 1975 |
Type species | |
†Bagaceratops rozhdestvenskyi Maryanska & Osmolska, 1975
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Synonyms | |
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Bagaceratops (meaning "small-horned face") is a genus of small protoceratopsid dinosaurs that lived in Asia during the Late Cretaceous, around 72 to 71 million years ago. Bagaceratops remains have been reported from the Barun Goyot Formation and Bayan Mandahu Formation. One specimen may argue the possible presence of Bagaceratops in the Djadochta Formation.
Bagaceratops was among the smallest ceratopsians, growing up to 1–1.5 m (3.3–4.9 ft) in length, with a weight about 22.7–45 kg (50–99 lb). Although emerging late in the reign of the dinosaurs, Bagaceratops had a fairly primitive anatomy—when compared to the much derived ceratopsids—and kept the small body size that characterized early ceratopsians. Unlike its close relative, Protoceratops, Bagaceratops lacked premaxillary teeth (cylindrical, blunt teeth near the tip of the upper jaw).