Sinoceratops

Sinoceratops is an extinct genus of ceratopsian dinosaur that lived from 77.3 to 73.5 million years ago during the latter part of the Cretaceous Period in what is now Shandong province in China. It was named in 2010 by Xu Xing et al. for three skulls from Zhucheng, China. The name of the type species Sinoceratops zhuchengensis means "Chinese horned face from Zhucheng", after the location of its discovery. Sinoceratops was a medium-sized, averagely-built, ground-dwelling, quadrupedal herbivore. It could grow up to an estimated 5 metres (16 ft) in length and weigh up to 2 tonnes (2.0 long tons; 2.2 short tons). It was the first ceratopsid dinosaur discovered in China, and the only ceratopsid known from Asia. All other centrosaurines and all chasmosaurines are known from fossils discovered in North America. Sinoceratops is also significant due to the fact it is one of the largest known centrosaurines, and is much larger than any other known basal members of this group. This genus was discovered in the Hongtuya Formation (a unit of the Wangshi Group) which was deposited during the late Cretaceous. The most common animal in the formation was the saurolophine Shantungosaurus, to which most of the material has been assigned. Animals that lived alongside Sinoceratops and Shantungosaurus included the leptoceratopsid Zhuchengceratops, the titanosaur Zhuchengtitan, and the tyrannosaurine Zhuchengtyrannus.