Nest of the dinosaur Protoceratops

Thulborn, R A. 1992 04 15: Nest of the dinosaur Protoceratops. Lethaia , Vol. 25, pp. 145–149. Oslo. ISSN 0024–1164.
Two different types of nests and eggs have been attributed to Protoceratops , a primitive-looking ceratopsian dinosaur from the Upper Cretaceous of Mongolia. Comparisons with the reproductive traces of other Cretaceous dinosaurs reveal that conventional restorations of the Protoceratops nest are probably based upon the nest of an ornithopod dinosaur. Authentic nests of Protoceratops do exist, but these are smaller and less complex in structure than the nests of ornithopod dinosaurs. This misunderstanding, which has endured in popular and scientific literature for more than 50 years, underlies the widespread belief that Protoceratops laid its eggs in a crater-like excavation. More probably the nest of Protoceratops comprised a shallow radial array of eggs concealed beneath a low mound of soil. * Ornithischia, eggs, nests, behaviour, Cretaceous .