Prenoceratops

Prenoceratops is a genus of small neoceratopsian dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of western North America. The genus is known from partial skulls and fragmentary postcranial material and is represented by a single named species, Prenoceratops pieganensis. It is considered a basal member of the neoceratopsian lineage and is often placed close to other small-bodied forms such as Leptoceratops and Montanoceratops.

Prenoceratops was a relatively small herbivore, estimated at about 1–2 meters in length. Its skull bore a short, modest frill and a parrot-like beak, lacking the large horns and elaborate ornamentation of later ceratopsids. Its teeth and jaws were adapted for cropping and shearing plant material, and locomotion was likely facultatively quadrupedal, with the animal able to move on both two and four limbs.

Fossils attributed to Prenoceratops have been recovered from Campanian-age deposits in what is now Montana, suggesting it inhabited coastal plains and floodplain environments alongside other contemporaneous dinosaurs, including hadrosaurs and small theropods. The genus contributes to understanding of neoceratopsian diversity and biogeography in North America during the Late Cretaceous, illustrating the presence of small, basal ceratopsians that occupied different ecological niches than their larger, later relatives.

Because remains are incomplete, aspects of Prenoceratops biology and precise relationships within Neoceratopsia remain subject to revision as new material is discovered.