PSITTACOSAURUS
a psittacosaurid ceratopsian dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of Asia.
Pronunciation: SIT-a-ko-SOR-us
Meaning: Parrot lizard
Author/s: Osborn (
1923)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Övörkhangai, Mongolia
Discovery Chart Position: #138
Psittacosaurus mongoliensis
With a short and deep skull adorned with a beak, it's hard to imagine H.F Osborn naming this Early Cretaceous critter anything other than "parrot lizard." What's a little harder to imagine, is that this puny, common as muck, two-legged ceratopsian or horn-faced herbivore—ironically lacking anything in the horned-face department—was a progenitor of the Late Cretaceous ceratopsids, the largest of which were the size of three rhinos and needed four legs to support their stupendous mass.
(Parrot lizard from Mongolia)Etymology
Psittacosaurus is derived from the Greek "Psittakos" (parrot), because of the parrot-like profile of its skull, and "sauros" (lizard).
The
species epithet,
mongoliensis, means "from Mongolia" in Latin.
Synonyms
•
Protiguanodon mongoliense (Osborn, 1923), including
Psittocosaurus protiguanodonensis which is what C.C Young renamed this critter in 1958.
•
Luanpingosaurus jingshanensis (Cheng vide Chen, 1996)
•
Hongshanosaurus houi (You
et al., 2003)
Discovery
The first specimen of
Psittacosaurus —
Psittacosaurus mongoliensis — was discovered in the
"Cannonball Beds" of the Öösh Formation, Red Mesa, Artsa Bogdo (Oshih Basin), Övörkhangai Province, Mongolia, by the AMNH Third Asiatic Expedition to Mongolia of 1922. Species have since been discovered in Mongolia, Russia, right across China, and possibly Thailand.
The
holotype (AMNH 6254) is a skeleton.
The "Frankfurt specimen" of
Psittacosaurus sp. (SMF R 4970) from the Early Cretaceous Jehol deposits of Liaoning preserves the cloaca — the all-purpose opening used for defecation, urination and breeding — which was highly pigmented with melanin, suggesting a brightly colored vent for display and signalling, similar to living baboons and some breeding salamanders. Large, pigmented lobes on either side of the opening could have harboured musky scent glands, as seen in living crocodylians.
On this same specimen, Laser-Stimulated Fluorescence (LSF) revealed a "belly button". Kind of. Unlike humans, dinosaurs did not have an umbilical cord because they laid eggs. Instead, the embryo was tethered to a number of membranes including the yolk sack via a slit-like opening on the abdomen, as seen in modern egg-laying land animals.
These membranes detach and the opening seals up at around the time of hatching, leaving a distinctive long umbilical scar equivalent to the navel or "belly button" found in mammals.
Estimations
Timeline:
Era: Mesozoic
Epoch: Early Cretaceous
Stage: Berriasian-Albian
Age range: 140-99 mya
Stats:
Est. max. length: ?
Est. max. hip height: ?
Est. max. weight: ?
Diet: Herbivore
Psittacosaurus
mongoliensis
Other Species
A mind-boggling seventeen species have been assigned to
Psittacosaurus, with over 400 specimens between them, and whilst "only" nine (or maybe ten) are currently considered valid some experts believe this is still too many. Expect further pruning at some point.
Valid:
•
Psittacosaurus sinensis (Young, 1958) - Holotype: IVPP V.738.
•
Psittacosaurus meileyingensis (Sereno
et al., 1988) - Holoype: IVPP V7705.
•
Psittacosaurus xinjiangensis (Sereno & Zhao, 1988)
- Holoype: IVPP V7698.
•
Psittacosaurus neimongoliensis (Russell & Zhao, 1996) - Holoype: IVPP 12-0888-2.
•
Psittacosaurus sibiricus (Leshchinskiy
et al., 2000) - Holoype: PM TGU 16/4-20.
•
Psittacosaurus lujiatunensis (Zhou
et al., 2006) - Holoype: ZMNH M8137.
•
Psittacosaurus major (Sereno
et al., 2007) - Holoype: LH PV1.
•
Psittacosaurus gobiensis (Sereno, Zhao and Lin, 2010)
- Holoype: LH PV2.
:
• Psittacosaurus sattayaraki (Buffetaut & Suteethorn, 1992) - Holotype: TF 2449a.
Dubious:
•
Psittacosaurus mazongshanensis (Xu, 1997) - Holotype: IVPP V12165.
•
Psittacosaurus ordosensis (Russell & Zhao, 1996) - Holoype: IVPP 07-08888-1.
:
•
Psittacosaurus guyangensis - a synonym of
Psittacosaurus mongoliensis.
•
Psittocosaurus protiguanodonensis (Young 1958) - originally
Protiguanodon mongoliense (Osborn, 1923) - a synonym of
Psittocosaurus mongoliensis.
•
Psittacosaurus tingi (Young 1931) - a synonym of
Psittacosaurus osborni.
•
Psittacosaurus osborni (Young 1931) - a synonym of
Psittacosaurus mongoliensis.
•
Psittacosaurus youngi (Chao 1962) - a synonym of
Psittacosaurus sinensis.
References
• Osborn HF (1923) "
Two Lower Cretaceous dinosaurs of Mongolia".
American Museum Novitates, 95: 1-10. [Coins Psittacosaurus mongoliensis]
• Buffetaut E and Ingavat R (1992) "A new species of the ornithischian dinosaur Psittacosaurus from the Early Cretaceous of Thailand".
Palaeontology, 35(4): 801-812. [Coins Psittacosaurus sattayaraki]
• Sereno PC (1992) "New data on parrot-beaked dinosaurs (
Psittacosaurus)"
in Carpenter and Currie "
Dinosaur Systematics: Approaches and Perspectives".
• Averianov AO, Voronkevich AV, Leshchinskiy SV and Fayngertz AV (2006) "A ceratopsian dinosaur
Psittacosaurus sibiricus from the Early Cretaceous of West Siberia, Russia and its phylogenetic relationships".
Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, 4(04): 359-395. DOI: 10.1017/S1477201906001933.
• Ford TL and Martin LD (2010) "A semi-aquatic life habit for Psittacosaurus" in Ryan, Chinnery-Allgeier and Eberth "
New Perspectives on Horned Dinosaurs: The Royal Tyrrell Museum Ceratopsian Symposium".
• You H and Dodson P (2004) "Basal Ceratopsia" in Weishampel, Dodson and Osmólska "
The Dinosauria: Second Edition".
• Sereno PC, Zhao X and Lin T (2009) "
A new psittacosaur from Inner Mongolia and the parrot-like structure and function of the psittacosaur skull".
Proc Biol Sci. 277(1679): 199-209. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2009.0691.
• Sereno PC (2010) "Taxonomy, Cranial Morphology, and Relationships of Parrot-Beaked Dinosaurs (Ceratopsia:
Psittacosaurus)" in Ryan, Chinnery-Allgeier and Eberth "
New Perspectives on Horned Dinosaurs: The Royal Tyrrell Museum Ceratopsian Symposium".
• Zhao Q, Benton MJ, Xu X and Sander MJ (2013) "
Juvenile-only clusters and behaviour of the Early Cretaceous dinosaur Psittacosaurus".
Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, 59(4). DOI: 10.4202/app.2012.0128.
• Vinther J, Nicholls R and Kelly DA (2021)
"
A cloacal opening in a non-avian dinosaur".
Current Biology, CB 31(4). DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.12.039.
• Bell PR, Hendrickx C, Pittman M and Kaye TG (2022)
"Oldest preserved umbilical scar reveals dinosaurs had 'belly buttons'".
BMC Biology 20: 132.
DOI: 10.1186/s12915-022-01329-9.
• Bell PR, Hendrickx C, Pittman M, Kaye TG and Mayr G (2022) "The exquisitely preserved integument of
Psittacosaurus and the scaly skin of ceratopsian dinosaurs".
Communications Biology, 5(809). DOI: 10.1038/s42003-022-03749-3.
• Han G, Mallon JC, Lussier AJ, Wu X-C, Mitchell R and Li L-J (2023) "An extraordinary fossil captures the struggle for existence during the Mesozoic".
Scientific Reports, 13: 11221. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-37545-8.
• Podlesnov AV, Averianov AO, Burukhin AA, Feofanova OA and Vladimirova ON (2023)
"New Data on Skull Morphology of
Psittacosaurus sibiricus (Dinosauria: Ceratopsia) Using Micro-Computed Tomography".
Paleontological Journal, 57(10): 1128–1187.
DOI: 10.1134/S0031030123100040.
• Sakagami R, Kawabe S, Hattori S, Zheng W and Jin X (2023) "
Endocranial anatomy of the ceratopsian dinosaur Psittacosaurus lujiatunensis and its bearing on sensory and locomotor abilities".
Memoir of the Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum, 22: 1–12.
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"
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