Magnirostris – it’s not Protoceratops

When out at Bayan Mandahu and a few other similar localities the one thing you are bound to find is Protoceratops. This little ceratopsian is present in huge numbers and there are all kinds of fossils out there of it and lots of teeth too. It was by far the most common animal out there and it’s a reasonable bet that any unidentified scrap of bone that you find out there ultimately come from a Protoceratops.

However, to confuse matters just a little there is the extraordinarily similar Bagaceratops present and a few other taxa that may or may not be valid depending on quite whom you ask. This skull is from the putative genus Magnirostris named in 2003 but already considered likely to be a juvenile Bagaceratops. I’m certainly not in a position to delve into the taxonomy of the ceratopsians (nor do I especially want to) but it’s a really nice skull and was worth putting up.

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