What is Ceratopsidae?
Ceratopsidae is the family of large horned dinosaurs with bony neck frills, known mainly from the Late Cretaceous of western North America. Members divide into two main branches: centrosaurines, which often have a prominent nose horn or bony boss and short brow horns, and chasmosaurines, which usually have longer brow horns and longer frills.
Ceratopsids were plant-eaters with beak-like mouths and tooth batteries that sheared vegetation. The horns and frills probably helped with recognition and display as well as other uses, but fossils cannot settle their exact function, and many skulls change shape as individuals grow.
How this group is defined here
Members are the 8 field notes whose family or immediate parent group in the Paleobiology Database catalogue is Ceratopsidae. The interpreted diet field across the group is herbivore, based on skeletal features rather than direct observation. Groups are revised when new fossils are described, and some genera are placed here with less certainty than others, so each field note records its sources and limits.
