EARTH 7 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Protoceratopsid, Ceratopsidae, Ceratopsia
Enamel = mostly appetite
Cerapod Evolutionary novelties:
- Diastema = gap between front and back teeth
- Uneven enamel thickness
- Enamel = hardest part of teeth
- the uneven enamel of cerapods is oriented such that teeth become self-sharpening
Marginocephalia: Ceratopsians and Pachycephalosaurus
Marginocephalians = margin heads
Cephal = head
Novelty: shelf (= margin) along back of skull
Pachycephalosaurdis (thick head lizard, thick skulls, derived character)
- Bipedal
- Runners
Evidence that domes were being used as battering rams
Battering ram evidence:
- Strong neck muscles
- Back of head: neck muscle attachment sites
Ceratopsian novelties
- Rostral bone
- Rostral + predentary = a beak!
Liaoning fossils:
- Stunning preservation of soft tissues in fine grained lake sediments
Ceratopsid + protoceratopsid novelties
- Frill
- Dental batteries
- Lots of teeth arranged into one large structure
- Vertical grinding surface
Protoceratopsids = no horns
Protoceratops = root of myth for griffin
Ceratopsids
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