Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
psittacosaur

psittacosaur

9.9
A small early plant-eating dinosaur with a parrot-like beak that walked on two legs
  • noun
  • /ˌsɪtəˈkɔːsɔːr/
  • Specialized
: psittacosaurio
  • The museum displays a nearly complete psittacosaur skeleton from the Early Cretaceous period.

Examples

  • Recent discoveries revealed the possible coloration of a juvenile psittacosaur.

  • A psittacosaur would have used its beak to clip plants close to the ground.

  • The psittacosaur is often considered one of the earliest dinosaurs.

  • Many fossils of the psittacosauruses have been found in Mongolia.

  • A psittacosaur used its parrot-like beak to eat low-growing plants in its habitat.

  • In the museum, visitors can see a fossilized psittacosaur that dates back millions of years.

  • Researchers believe the psittacosaur was a bipedal dinosaur that roamed during the Early Cretaceous.

Synonyms

psittacosaurus
vspsittacosaur
  • Specialized
9.9

A small early dinosaur with a parrot-like beak, a tiny neck frill, and two strong back legs

refers to a single small dinosaur member within that genus rather than the genus

Surface Forms

psittacosaur singular
psittacosauruses plural
psittacosaurus singular

Morphology

psittacosaur = Psittacosaurus (opaque) = psittaco + saur

Formed from classical combining elements (psittaco- + -saur/-saurus) that are unfamiliar and non-productive for most learners, so the meaning is not derivable from common English vocabulary.

Etymology

Psittacosaur comes from Greek parts psittaco- meaning 'parrot' and -saur meaning 'lizard', so it literally means 'parrot lizard'. That's why the name fits: these small dinosaurs had a parrot-like beak and walked on two legs.