Photo Agency - Astronomy - Space - Nature

> Zuniceratops

Zuniceratops

author: Walter B. Myers/Novapix

reference: t-din03-15381

Image Size 300 DPI: 33 * 25 cm

A 10 foot long, 250 pound Zuniceratops wonders a Cretaceous forest 90 million years ago in what is today New Mexico. Like the better known and larger Triceratops, Zuniceratops was a Ceratopsid, a family of four-legged plant-eating dinosaurs characterized by beaks, rows of shearing teeth in the back of the jaw, and elaborate horns and frills. While they resemble defensive shields, the frills are in fact relatively fragile, suggesting that they may have served a purpose other than protecting against a brute force attack. One possibility is that the frills were employed as visual displays in order to intimidate rivals and attract the opposite sex.

Keywords for this photo:

2010 - ANIMAL - CRETACEOUS - DINOSAUR - EARTH - FAUNA - HISTORY OF EARTH - ILLUSTRATION - MESOZOIC - ORNITHISCHIA - ZUNICERATOPS -