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CERASINOPS
(seh-rass-e-nopz)
meaning: "Cherry face"
Cerasinops
Named By: B. J. Chinnery & J. R. Horner in 2007
Time Period: Late Cretaceous
Location: USA, Montana - Two Medicine Formation
Size: Roughly about 2.4-2.5 meters long
Diet: Herbivore
Fossil(s): Partial remains of at least three individuals
Classification: | Chordata | Reptilia | Dinosauria | Ornithischia | Cerapoda | Ceratopsia | Leptoceratopsidae |
About

Cerasinops (meaning 'cherry face') was a small ceratopsian dinosaur. It lived during the Campanian of the late Cretaceous Period. Its fossils have been found in Two Medicine Formation, in Montana. The type species of the genus Cerasinops is C. hodgskissi.

Cerasinops was named and described by Brenda Chinnery and Jack Horner in 2007 from a specimen (MOR 300) almost 80% complete. Cerasinops belonged to the Ceratopsia (the name is Ancient Greek for 'horned face'), a group of herbivorous dinosaurs with parrot-like beaks that throve in North America and Asia during the Cretaceous Period. Within this group, it has been placed as a basal member of Neoceratopia, although the description is variable; at one point, it is explicitly assigned to Leptoceratopsidae, but in others, it is considered a sister taxon to Leptoceratopsidae, or as a neoceratopsian in general.

Read more about Cerasinops at Wikipedia
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