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(SIT-uh-ko-sawr-us) This man-sized dinosaur is a
member of the "parrot lizard" family. It is linked with the "horned
face" dinosaurs. Psittacosaurus looked a bit like Protoceratops but had no
bone neck frill. It had a beak like a parrot and a deep jaw. Its front legs were quite
short, while its back legs were long and very strong. It probably ambled along on all
fours and stood on its back legs to reach plants and branches.
Psittacosaurus had four toes on
each foot, one of which was a stump like a short thumb. It had four fingers on each hand
and claws on each finger and toe. These dinosaurs lived in the early and mid-Cretaceous
period. They may have descended from the Heterodontosaurus family of the early
Jurassic more than 90 million years earlier.
On one bone hunt, scientists found
a baby Psittacosaurus only half the size of a pigeon. It is the smallest baby dinosaur
found anywhere.
| HEADS COMPARED The dinosaur family Psittacosauridae takes its name
from similarities between the skull of a Psittacosaurus (right) and the head of a macaw
(far right), cockatoo, and other members of the Psittacidae (the parrot family). Parrots
evolved deep, sharp beaks to slice through tough-skinned fruits and crack open nuts. It is
thought that Psittacosaurus, with its deep, sharp beak and its cheek teeth, was probably
capable of cutting up and chewing hard plant material. |
Location: Russia, Mongolia, China,
Thailand
Diet: Fibrous plants
Size: Length 2m (6ft 6in)
Classification:
Suborder Marginocephalia
Order Ornithischia
Time (million years ago): 113
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