Ischioceratops

'ischium-horned face') is an extinct genus of small herbivorous ceratopsian dinosaur that lived approximately 69 million years ago during the latter part of the Cretaceous Period in what is now China.

The ceratopsians were a group of dinosaurs with parrot-like beaks which fed on vegetation and thrived in North America and Asia during the Cretaceous Period, which ended approximately 66 million years ago, at which point they all became extinct.

In 2015, the type species Ischioceratops zhuchengensis was named and described by He Yiming, Peter J. Makovicky, Wang Kebai, Chen Shuqing, Corwin Sullivan, Han Fenglu and Xu Xing.

[2] The holotype ZCDM V0O016 was discovered in Kugou, a locality in the Shandong Province of China which presents layers of the Upper Cretaceous Wangshi Group, possibly dating from the late Campanian or earliest Maastrichtian.

The taxon has been referred to Leptoceratopsidae and is distinguished from other known leptoceratopsids based on the following combination of characters: nine sacral vertebrae, more than in any other known basal (non-ceratopsid) ceratopsian but fewer than in ceratopsids; the ischium has a robust shaft that resembles that of a recurved bow and flares gradually to form a subrectangular-shaped obturator process in its middle portion while an elliptical fenestra perforates the obturator process.

Another characteristic of Ischioceratops is the presence of an elevation in the proximal part of its tail, which is present also in Protoceratops, Koreaceratops and in a more similar way in Montanoceratops and Cerasinops.

Restoration
Holotype seen from above
The unique ischium
The tail section
The thighbone
Skeletal reconstruction of the known bones
Ossified tendons
The pelvis