Psittacosaurus, or the ‘parrot lizard’, was a small plant eating dinosaur that lived in Mongolia and China during the Early Cretaceous, 100 to 120 million years ago. About the size of a large dog, this peaceful creature used its beak and rough teeth to cut and crush tough plants. Recent discoveries revealed the skin color and pattern of Psittacosaurus and also showed that it had an unusual row of bristles along the top of its tail.
History
Psittacosaurus was first discovered in the Gobi Desert, Mongolia, during an expedition organized by the American Museum of Natural History in 1922. Psittacosaurus was described and named the following year. Its name translates as ‘parrot lizard’ because it had a deep, curved beak reminiscent of a parrot’s.
A wealth of fossil material, including adults, juveniles, and babies, makes Psittacosaurusone of the best-known of all the dinosaurs. Soft tissues have even been found preserved in a Psittacosaurus skeleton discovered in Liaoning Province, China. This impressive fossil shows the outline of the body and even indicates the color and pattern of the skin, which was darker on top and lighter underneath. It also shows a row of bristles running along the top of the tail, which may have been for show.