Xuanhuaceratops

Xuanhuaceratops (meaning "Xuanhua horned face"[1]) is a genus of dinosaur from the Late Jurassic Period.

The species name Xuanhuasaurus niei was published by Zhao Xijin in a 1985 study, but without a description (or even a specified holotype) making it an invalid nomen nudum.

The generic name combines a reference to the Xuanhan region with Greek keras, "horn", and ops, "face".

[6] The animal was seen as facultatively bipedal in view of its slender upper arm bones, just four centimetres long, and bowed thighbone.

[1] The skeletons share a number of distinct features with a potential close relative, Chaoyangsaurus, discovered in the adjacent province of Liaoning.

[1] Based on morphological similarities, Zhao Xijin initially considered the species one of three so-called "prototype psittacosaurids"[5] along with Dianchungosaurus and Chaoyoungosaurus, which together made up the "chaoyoungosaurids".

Xuanhuaceratops niei was in 2006 placed in the Chaoyangsauridae, a clade in phylogenetic analyses recovered as a lineage of Ceratopsia basal to all neoceratopsians and psittacosaurids.