In Depth
Liaoceratops was a fairly small neoceratopsian dinosaur that is nonetheless a good example of the ancestors of the later and larger ceratopsian dinosaurs such as Triceratops and Styracosaurus that lived during the late Cretaceous. Liaoceratops had the beginnings of a neck frill, though nothing like the same scale as later descendants, and no horns were present. Also, while probably being mostly quadrupedal, Liaoceratops would have still had an easy time rearing up and walking around on just their hind legs.
The small size and relatively high agility meant that Liaoceratops would have had a good chance to evade larger predatory dinosaurs such as tyrannosaurs like Yutyrannus, especially when roaming around forests. Liaoceratops were eaten by predatory dinosaurs however as a skull of a juvenile (CAGS-IG-VD-002) shows that the braincase was missing, probably removed by a predator. There are no shortage of potential suspects for this as the Yixian Formation is known to contain many predators such as troodonts like Sinovenator and Sinusonasus, dromaeosaurs like Sinornithosaurus and Tianyuraptor as well as other basal tyrannosaurs such as Dilong.
Further Reading
- A ceratopsian dinosaur from China and the early evolution of Ceratopsia - X. Xu, P. J. Makovicky, X. Wang, M. A. Norell & H. You -2002. - A new specimen of Liaoceratops yanzigouensis (Dinosauria: Neoceratopsia) from the Early Cretaceous of Liaoning Province, China - H. You, K. Tanoue & P. Dodson - 2007.
