Living: Many skeletons were found at the site, where the first Protoceratops’ were found. All these bones belonged to some small dinosaurs with big heads, bony collars, sharp teeth and parrot-like beaks. Some of these characteristics were just like the Asian model for enormous rhinoceros-lizards in the USA, the Ceratopsids.

By Shiraishi Mineo

The Protoceratops gave name to the Protoceratopsids, a new family of dinosaurs. Founds of nests and eggs gave the first idea of the family-life in a dinosaur-society. The Protoceratops lived in inhospitable areas filled with moors and dry, windy sandbanks. There were rainy seasons, where lakes got filled with water, and there were droughts, where most of the water evaporated. Plants, who could resist these shifting seasons, were normally hard, and that is why the Protoceratops had a sharp beak.

Breeding colonies: The Protoceratops would do anything to protect their nests. Even take up a fight with a Velociraptor, which easily could attack a group of younger Protoceratops, or Oviraptor was nothing for this dinosaur. Several skeletons from both the Velociraptor and the Oviraptor were found near the nests.

Skeleton: The bones in the front legs were almost as long as the ones in the hind legs and supported the heavy head. Not like the Ceratopids, the Protoceratops had teeth in the upper jaw and the shinbone was longer than the thigh. Each front leg had three long fingers with short claws and two short ones. Each hind leg ended in a long foot, four toes with very short claws and a little fifth toe.