LOCALITY: Meileyingzi, Shengli, Chaoyang City, Liaoning Province, China.

AGE and HORIZON: (Late) Early Cretaceous Period 115 million years ago. From the Jiufotang Formation.

SPECIES INFORMATION: A small primitive bipedal ceratopsian dinosaur which grew to around 1 metre. Atchosauria: Ornithischia: Ceratopsia: Psittacosauridae

PRONOUNCED; si-ta-koh-saw-us

A RARELY AVAILABLE COMPLETE PSITTACOSAURUS DINOSAUR

THIS SPECIMEN MEASURES APPROX 22 1/2/56cm

Meaning "parrot lizard" (referring to its parrot like beak) these early parrot-beaked dinosaurs are a close ancestor to the horned dinosaurs (certopsians) which include such well known forms such as TRICEROTOPS.

Both parrot beaked and horned dinosaurs possessed jaws, being curved and tapered forward and the lateral teeth highly specialised to masticate their vegetative diet.

A relatively small DINOSAUR bipedal dinosaur which had relatively long and well developed forearms.

PSITTACOSAURUS was the first step on the path towards the four-footed horned descendants that were to appear 20 million years later - PSITTACOSAURUS appears to be an evolutionary link between two large groups of dinosaurs.

A VERY EARLY DINOSAUR WHICH LIVED A CONSIDERABLE TIME BEFORE THE FAMOUS NORTH AMERICAN DINOSAURS.