cer·a·top·si·an

(sĕr′ə-tŏp′sē-ən)

Any of various herbivorous quadrupedal ornithischian dinosaurs of the group Ceratopsia of the Cretaceous Period, having a beaked mouth, usually a bony frill on the back of the skull, and sometimes horns.

[From New Latin Cerātōpsia, suborder name : Greek keras, kerāt-, horn; see ker- in Indo-European roots + Greek ōps, eye, face; see ok^w- in Indo-European roots.]

cer′a·top′si·an adj.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ceratopsian

(ˌsɛrəˈtɒpsɪən) or

ceratopsid

adj

resembling or belonging to the Ceratopsia, a suborder of herbivorous dinosaurs characterized by their parrot-like beaks, horns, and neck frills

a dinosaur of the suborder Ceratopsia

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

cer·a·top·si·an

(sĕr′ə-tŏp′sē-ən)

Any of various medium-sized to large, plant-eating dinosaurs of the late Jurassic and Cretaceous Periods. Ceratopsians walked on four legs and had a broad bony plate covering the neck, a beaked mouth, and one or more horns on the head. Triceratops is an example of a ceratopsian.

The American Heritage® Student Science Dictionary, Second Edition. Copyright © 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

ceratopsian - any of several four-footed herbivorous dinosaurs with enormous beaked skulls; of the late Cretaceous in North America and Mongolia

horned dinosaur

ornithischian, ornithischian dinosaur - herbivorous dinosaur with a pelvis like that of a bird

Ceratopsia, suborder Ceratopsia - horned dinosaurs

protoceratops - small horned dinosaur

triceratops - huge ceratopsian dinosaur having three horns and the neck heavily armored with a very solid frill

styracosaur, styracosaurus - an unusual ceratopsian dinosaur having many large spikes around the edge of its bony frill and a long nose horn; late Cretaceous

psittacosaur, psittacosaurus - primitive dinosaur actually lacking horns and having only the beginning of a frill; long hind limbs and short forelimbs; may have been bipedal

Mentioned in

References in periodicals archive

"Before this study," says Morschhauser, "we had to rely on Psittacosaurus, a more distantly related and unusual ceratopsian, for our picture of what the last bipedal ceratopsian looked like."

Horned Dinosaur from China Walked On Two Feet

A dispute arose in 2008 when the Seversons learned about the fossils -- a 22-foot-long (7-meter-long) theropod and a 28-foot-long (9-meter-long) ceratopsian.

Fight over dinosaur fossils comes down to what's a mineral

Styracosaurus is a type of ceratopsian dinosaur and a cousin to the triceratops.

Walking with dinosaurs; Dinosaurs are taking over Cardiff's Bute Park this weekend. Joshua Knapman discovers what creatures visitors can see

The Protoceratops was a genus of the sheep-sized herbivorous ceratopsian dinosaur during the Upper Cretaceous Period.

Man arrested in Mongolia for smuggling rare dinosaur fossil

(2008): Stable isotope evidence for changes in dietary niche partitioning among hadrosaurian and ceratopsian dinosaurs of the Hell Creek Formation, North Dakota.

The biota of the Upper Cretaceous site of Lo Hueco (Cuenca, Spain)

In 2009, we began to uncover a massive ceratopsian (horned dinosaur) bone bed, or graveyard, which is as long as a football field and crammed with bones.

The dinosaur diaries: a wrinkle in time

The final chapter in the first part, "Pigeon-Holing the 'Dino-Birds'" by Allison Tumarkin-Deratzian, a specialist in bone growth in tetrapods and ceratopsian dinosaurs, examines aspects of the lineage that records the transition from theropod dinosaurs to birds.

For The Rock Record: Geologists on Intelligent Design

The books draw on research conducted over two decades, made possible because of the discovery of a densely packed bonebed near Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada, which yielded a new species of horned dinosaur, the ceratopsian. In addition to the main descriptive paper, the book includes information about the distribution of bones within the bonebed itself, and a digital treatment of CT-scan data of the fossils to reveal the anatomy of the animal's brain.

A new horned dinosaur from an Upper Cretaceous bone bed in Alberta

-- It has been argued that ceratopsian humeri have massive shafts that are prima facie evidence of galloping.

A scaling equation for humeral diameter in ceratopsian dinosaurs

Visitors will meet Mamenchisaurus, a huge plant-eater with the longest neck of any animal in history; the unicorn-like duck-billed Tsintaosaurus; and a miniature ceratopsian called Psittacosaurus, or parrot lizard; Sinosauropteryx and Caudipteryx, two of the feathered dinosaurs that have electrified the world of paleontology--and who can resist the sight of a Monolophosaurus locked in mortal combat with a Tuojiangosaurus?

When dinosaurs dominated: ancient creatures arrive from China: A new exhibition "tells the story of how the planet changed while dinosaurs ruled the Earth--and how this affected the evolution of dinosaurs and other life

Researchers discovered the fossilized horn of a ceratopsian - likely a Triceratops, which are common to the area - in the Hell Creek formation in Montana last year.

'Last dinosaur' fossil backs asteroid extinction theory