Dinosaurs, Liaoning Province, China
Psittacosaurus skeleton
Psittacosaurus sp.
A complete skeleton of the “parrot lizard” — one of the earliest ceratopsians, from the Cretaceous forests of Liaoning.
12 500 000 ₽ · In stock — Gimenei shopping centre
- Epoch
- Cretaceous period
- Age
- ≈ 125 Mya
- Origin
- Liaoning Province, China
- Size
- 168 cm
- Classification
- The genus Psittacosaurus, early ceratopsians
- Habitat
- The Cretaceous forests of Asia
- Ref.
- R–0610
Psittacosaurus lived some 125 million years ago in the Cretaceous forests of Asia, among ginkgoes, conifers, cycads and ferns. One of the earliest and most numerous ceratopsians: it walked on long hind legs, lived in groups, dug burrows and cared for its young.
The beaked jaws and the tall short skull gave the genus its name, “parrot lizard”. The body was covered with scales, a row of stiff bristles ran along the tail, and a brown back with dark spots over a pale belly served as forest camouflage; an adult reached two metres and weighed about twenty kilograms.
The specimen is large for its genus, and the skeleton is more than 95 per cent complete — a figure rare even among museum dinosaur mounts.
As found
The reconstruction repeats the pose of the exhibit — the same stride, the same turn of the head. The colouring is restored from the species’ fossil melanosomes: a dark back, a pale belly, a row of bristles on the tail. Around it, the Early Cretaceous forest of Liaoning: ginkgoes, conifers and ferns by a lake.