Hualianceratops wucaiwanensis - a primitive horned dinosaur

Hualianceratops wucaiwanensis is a new species of plant-eating dinosaur that stood on its hind feet and was about the size of a spaniel. It lived early in the late Jurassic Period, some 160 million years ago, and is one of the oldest known of the Ceratopsian or “horned dinosaurs”. Researchers from George Washington University and the Chinese Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology discovered the fossils in the Shishugou Formation of the Junggar Basin, in the Gobi Desert of China’s Xinjiang Province.

Credits:
Image: © PortiaSloanRollings
Video: NSF/GWU
Research:
A New Taxon of Basal Ceratopsian from China and the Early Evolution of Ceratopsia
Fenglu Han, Catherine A. Forster, James M. Clark, Xing Xu
PLoS ONE, 2015 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0143369