24 Facts About Psittacosaurus

Psittacosaurus is a genus of extinct ceratopsian dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of what is Asia, existing between 126 and 101 million years ago.

The species of Psittacosaurus were obligate bipeds at adulthood, with a high skull and a robust beak.

Psittacosaurus probably had complex behaviours, based on the proportions and relative size of the brain.

Psittacosaurus was one of the earliest ceratopsians, but closer to Triceratops than Yinlong.

The genera closely related to Psittacosaurus are all from Asia, with the exception of Aquilops, from North America.

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Psittacosaurus is one of the most completely known dinosaur genera.

Psittacosaurus was first described as a genus in 1923, by Henry Fairfield Osborn.

Psittacosaurus named the type species P mongoliensis, for the location of its discovery in Mongolia, placing it in the new family Psittacosauridae.

When describing Psittacosaurus mongoliensis in 1923, Osborn gave the name Protiguanodon mongoliense to another skeleton found nearby, believing it to represent an ancestor of the ornithopod Iguanodon, in the new subfamily Protiguanodontinae.

Two new species of Psittacosaurus were described by Canadian Dale Russell and Zhao in 1996.

One nearly complete skeleton of P lujiatunensis from the same lower beds of the Yixian Formation had previously been classified in its own species, Psittacosaurus major, named for the large size of its skull by Sereno, Zhao and two colleagues in 2007.

Psittacosaurus regarded Hongshanosaurus as a junior synonym of Psittacosaurus, and potentially the same as P lujiatunensis.

Psittacosaurus did not synonymise the two species because of difficulties with the holotype skull of H houi, instead considering new combination P houi a nomen dubium within Psittacosaurus.

Species of Psittacosaurus vary in size and specific features of the skull and skeleton, but share the same overall body shape.

Skull of Psittacosaurus is highly modified compared to other ornithischian dinosaurs of its time.

Integument, or body covering, of Psittacosaurus is known from a Chinese specimen, which most likely comes from the Yixian Formation of Liaoning Province, China.

The collagen tissue fibres in Psittacosaurus are complex, virtually identical to all other vertebrates in structure but having an exceptional thickness of about forty layers.

Psittacosaurus is the type genus of the family Psittacosauridae, which was named by Osborn in 1923.

Until the study, it was generally thought the brain of Psittacosaurus would have been similar to other ceratopsians with low Encephalisation Quotients.

The curvature of the semicircular canals is related to the agility of reptiles, and the large curved canals in Psittacosaurus show that the genus was much more agile than later ceratopsians.

Ford and Martin proposed that Psittacosaurus was semi-aquatic, swimming with its tail like a crocodile, and paddling and kicking.

Psittacosaurus is known from hundreds of individual specimens, of which over 75 have been assigned to the type species, P mongoliensis.

All Psittacosaurus fossils discovered so far have been found in Early Cretaceous sediments in Asia, from southern Siberia to northern China, and possibly as far south as Thailand.

Many terrestrial sedimentary formations of this age in Mongolia and northern China have produced fossils of Psittacosaurus, leading to the definition of this time period in the region as the Psittacosaurus biochron.