The skull consisted of a massive frontal beak, and four pairs of fenestrae (skull openings). These jaws were packed with dozens of teeth, well suited for chewing tough vegetation. Protoceratops appears to have had muscular jaws capable of a powerful bite. andrewsi Protoceratops was a relatively small dinosaur with a proportionately large skull.
The large numbers of specimens found in high concentration suggest that Protoceratops lived in herds. Smaller specimens are estimated at 23.7 kilograms (52 lb). A fully grown adult would have weighed about 82.7 kilograms (182 lb). Protoceratops was approximately 1.8 meters (5.9 ft) in length and 0.6 meters (2 ft) high at the shoulder. Some researchers, including Peter Dodson attribute the different sizes and shapes of these bones to sexual dimorphism, as well as the age of the specimen, at the time of death. The frill consists mostly of the parietal bone and partially of the squamosal. The exact size and shape of the neck frill varied by individual some specimens had short, compact frills, while others had frills nearly half the length of the skull. The frill itself contained two large parietal fenestrae (holes in the frill), while its cheeks had large jugal bones. Protoceratops was a quadrupedal dinosaur that was partially characterized by its distinctive neck frill at the back of its skull. In the 1920s, Roy Chapman Andrews discovered fossilized eggs in Mongolia that were interpreted as belonging to this dinosaur, but which turned out to be those of Oviraptor. hellenikorhinus), based in part by their respective sizes. Researchers currently distinguish two species of Protoceratops ( P. Gregory in 1923, Protoceratops was initially believed to be an ancestor of the North American ceratopsians. Other hypotheses about its function include protection of the neck and anchoring of jaw muscles, but the fragility of the frill and the poor leverage offered by possible attachment sites here makes these ideas implausible. Protoceratops had a large neck frill which was likely used as a display site to impress other members of the species. Unlike later ceratopsians, however, it was a much smaller creature that lacked well-developed horns and retained some primitive traits not seen in later genera. It was a member of the Protoceratopsidae, a group of early horned dinosaurs. tops) ( /ˌproʊtoʊˈsɛrətɒps/ from Greek proto-/πρωτο- "first", cerat-/κερατ- "horn" and -ops/-ωψ "face", meaning "First Horned Face") is a genus of sheep-sized (1.8 m long) herbivorous ceratopsian dinosaur, from the Upper Cretaceous Period ( Campanian stage) of what is now Mongolia.
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