Leptoceratops
Scientific Classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Order: Ornithischia
Suborder: Ceratopsia
Family: Leptoceratopsidae
Genus: Leptoceratops
Type Species: Leptoceratops gracilis meaning "Thin-horned Face"
Described by Barnum Brown, 1914
Current Park Population: (16; 9 adults, 7 youngsters; 7 male, 9 female)
Park Diet: Ferns, pig feed, cow feed, low shrubs, cycads, flowers, conifers, banana leaves, watermelons, and pumpkins.
Natural Diet: Ferns, low shrubs, flowers, conifers, and cycads.
Lifespan: 24 years
Habitat: Open areas like floodplain swamps, fern prairies, and open-canopy forests with large amounts of food.
Native Ecosystem: Western North America, on what was then an island continent known as Laramidia. Hell Creek Formation, Southwestern Alberta, Canada, Montana, Wyoming, USA, 68.8-66 Million Years Ago, Maastrichtian Stage.
Breeding Season: April-June
Gestation Period: Two months
Eggs Laid: six to fourteen eggs
Hatching Time: Three to four weeks, depending on atmospheric moisture.
Danger Level: 4 out of 10.
Summary: Ceratopsids come in different shapes and sizes. Hell Creek is home to three species the Famous Triceratops, Torosaurus, and then there is Leptoceratops. This pig-sized dinosaur is a genus of leptoceratopsid ceratopsian dinosaurs from the late Cretaceous Period of what is now Western North America. Their skulls have been found in Alberta, Canada, and Wyoming.
Description: They are pig-sized dinosaurs resembling miniature versions of the triceratops and torosaurus – however, have no horns, a considerably smaller frill, and a much thicker tail. Adults were covered with gray scales with osteoderms with black stripes and some spots with inner gray circles over their body and tail, black feet, and pale belly with white spots. Their feet looked almost like scaly paws, complete with hand-like front feet and black bristles lining across the backs of their tails.
Males sported a white lower jaw and nasal sac which have black stripes, the crests, and eyering were red-orange, the rest of the head and frill were bronze yellow, with the upper jaw having orange stripes, the frill openings were three stripe colors from white, blue, and red, the nape of the neck and throat were bright red with black stripes and white spots, a black strip marking stretched over their eye to the back of their frill.
Females are identical, but the crests and frill were peach in color, the lower jaw has no stripes and the upper jaw had mango orange stripes, the white nasal sac lacked stripes as well, and the frill opening was just white with a black stripe coming from the eye region down the middle.
Hatchlings may resemble adults but are light gray and pale faces.
Leptoceratops could probably stand and run on their hind legs: analysis of forelimb function indicates that even though they could not pronate their hands, they could walk on four legs.
Size: Paul proposed that Leptoceratops was around 2 m (6.6 ft) long and could have weighed 100 kg (220 lb), but Tereschenko proposed a maximum length of 3–4 m (9.8–13.1 ft).
Discovery and Species: The first small ceratopsian named Leptoceratops was discovered in 1910 by Barnum Brown in the Red Deer Valley in Alberta, Canada. He described it four years later. The first specimen had a part of its skull missing, but there were later well-preserved finds by C. M. Sternberg in 1947, including one complete fossil. Later material was found in 1978 in the Bighorn Basin of northern Wyoming.
The type species is Leptoceratops gracilis. In 1942, material collected in Montana was named Leptoceratops cerorhynchos, but this was later renamed Montanoceratops.
Classification: Leptoceratops belonged to the Ceratopsia, a group of herbivorous dinosaurs with parrot-like beaks that thrived in North America and Asia during the Cretaceous Period. Although traditionally allied with the Protoceratopsidae, it is now placed in its own family, Leptoceratopsidae, along with dinosaurs such as Udanoceratops and Prenoceratops. The relationships of Leptoceratops to ceratopsids are not entirely clear. Although most studies suggest that they lie outside the protoceratopsids and ceratopsids, some studies suggest that they may be allied with Ceratopsidae. The absence of premaxillary teeth is one feature that supports this arrangement.
Paleobiology:
Behavior: One of our discoveries was that along with Thescelosaurus that Leptoceratops was capable of digging and living in burrows. In 2019, fossils from the Hell Creek Formation found three fossil bone beds which revealed that not only was Leptoceratops a social animal but also raised its young in communal burrows. There will be a sentry on the lookout warning the herd of predators.
Diet: Leptoceratops, like other ceratopsians, would have been a herbivore. The jaws were relatively short and deep, and the jaw muscles would have inserted over the large parietosquamosal frill, giving Leptoceratops a powerful bite. The teeth are unusual in that the dentary teeth have dual wear facets, with a vertical wear facet where the maxillary teeth sheared past the crown, and a horizontal wear facet where the maxillary teeth crushed against the dentary teeth. This shows that Leptoceratops chewed with a combination of shearing and crushing. Between the shearing/crushing action of the teeth and the powerful jaws, Leptoceratops was probably able to chew extremely tough plant matter. Given its small size and quadrupedal stance, Leptoceratops would have been a low feeder. Flowering plants, also known as angiosperms, were the most diverse plants of the day, although ferns, cycads, and conifers may still have been more common in terms of numbers. A 2016 study revealed that Leptoceratops was able to chew its food much like several groups of mammals, which meant that it had a diet that consisted of tough, fibrous plant material.
Like triceratops and Torosaurus, they will also gain protein and calcium from eating small animals, and carcasses, and even killing small dinosaurs. They will also visit clay licks to neutralize the toxins from the plants they eat.
Interactions with other species: They normally congregated in mixed species herds of Thescelosaurus, Ornithomimus, Edmontosaurus, vagrant Alamosaurus, Ankylosaurus, Triceratops, Torosaurus, and Pachycephalosaurus. The Leptoceratops will eat scraps of plants left by the larger herbivores and trimmed-down plants for Leptoceratops to eat.
Leptoceratops do face predators like Tyrannosaurus, Acheroraptor, Dromaeosaurus, Pectinodon, and Dakotaraptor. When a sentry spots danger, it would make a grunting sound to alert the Leptoceratops and they will run back into their burrows for cover. They will use their frills as shield plugs at the burrow entrance and bite at their foes with their sharp beaks. If cornered they will intimidate and fight back by charging, bellowing, and snapping with their beaks to distract the predator for a short amount of time. There was one case of a Leptoeratops fighting an Acheroraptor which ends in killing the raptor and eating the remains.
Extinction: Leptoceratops was another victim of the K-PG Extinction Event. They are alongside Thescelosaurus, Ornithomimus, Edmontosaurus, Alamosaurus, Ankylosaurus, Pachycephalosaurus, Tyrannosaurus, Trierarchuncus, and their relatives Triceratops, Torosaurus suffer from the aftermath of the event leaving a wasteland landscape with a scarce source of plants to feed
Danger Tip: Normally peaceful, be very careful of their sharp beaks and teeth.
Significant Events: A herd of Leptoceratops was encountered on the Team's first rescue mission on the third day. When a pack of Acheoraptors came to attack the herd, while Jake distracted the raptors, Leni lure them with some plants as bait to the portal, they now reside in the Hell Creek Building Paddocks.
Hell Creek Building Paddocks: The Leptoceratops live in one of the outdoor paddocks alongside Thescelosaurus and Trierarchuncusin in the other paddocks of the Hell Creek Building which has minimal barriers separating the animals and any humans, staff, or otherwise, that would later visit the building. It has dense bushes, ferns, and small trees with a few large ones. There are hill-like mounds to allow burrowing behaviors, There are plans to have a small door to allow them to enter the Hell Creek Herbivore Paddock to interact with the other herbivores.
Conclusion: Leptoceratops may not share the same fame as Triceratops and Torosaurus. Their small size makes them popular with visitors especially children because they're like pot-bellied pigs people would keep as pets. These ceratopsids are another welcome addition to Paleo Park.
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