Editing Ceratopsidae (section)

==Paleobiology==

===Behavior===
Fossil deposits dominated by large numbers of ceratopsids from individual species suggest that these animals were at least somewhat social.<ref name="socioecology-abs-263" /> However, the exact nature of ceratopsid social behavior has historically been controversial.<ref name="socioecology-intro-264" /> In 1997, Lehman argued that the aggregations of many individuals preserved in bonebeds originated as local "infestations" and compared them to similar modern occurrences in crocodiles and tortoises.<ref name="socioecology-intro-264" /> Other authors, such as Scott D. Sampson, interpret these deposits as the remains of large "socially complex" herds.<ref name="socioecology-intro-264" />

Modern animals with mating signals as prominent as the horns and frills of ceratopsians tend to form these kinds of large, intricate associations.<ref name="socioecology-socioecology-267-268" /> Sampson found in previous work that the [[centrosaurine]] ceratopsids did not achieve fully developed mating signals until nearly fully grown.<ref name="socioecology-retarded-270" /> He finds commonality between the slow growth of mating signals in centrosaurines and the extended [[adolescence]] of animals whose social structures are ranked hierarchies founded on age-related differences.<ref name="socioecology-retarded-270" /> In these sorts of groups young males are typically sexually mature for several years before actually beginning to breed, when their mating signals are most fully developed.<ref name="socioecology-correlates-265" /> Females, by contrast do not have such extended adolescence.<ref name="socioecology-correlates-265" />

Other researchers who support the idea of ceratopsid herding have speculated that these associations were seasonal.<ref name="socioecology-resource-269" />  This hypothesis portrays ceratopsids as living in small groups near the coasts during the rainy season and inland with the onset of the dry season.<ref name="socioecology-resource-269" /> Support for the idea that ceratopsids formed herds inland comes from the greater abundance of bonebeds in inland deposits than coastal ones. The migration of ceratopsids away from the coasts may have represented a move to their nesting grounds.<ref name="socioecology-resource-269" /> Many African herding animals engage in this kind of seasonal herding today.<ref name="socioecology-resource-269" /> Herds would also have afforded some level of protection from the chief predators of ceratopsids, [[tyrannosaurids]].<ref name="socioecology-pred-272" />

===Diet===
[[File:Ceratopsidae Tooth.jpg|thumb|Ceratopsid teeth have a distinctive leaf shape with a primary ridge running down the middle.|left]]
Ceratopsids were adapted to processing high-[[fiber]] plant material with their highly derived [[dental batteries]] and advanced dentition.<ref name="socioecology-resource-268" /> They may have utilized [[fermentation (biochemistry)|fermentation]] to break down plant material with a gut [[microflora]].<ref name="socioecology-resource-268" />  Mallon et al. (2013) examined herbivore coexistence on the island continent of [[Laramidia]], during the Late Cretaceous. It was concluded that ceratopsids were generally restricted to feeding on vegetation at, or below, the height of 1 meter.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Mallon|first=Jordan C|author2=David C Evans|author3=Michael J Ryan|author4=Jason S Anderson|title=Feeding height stratification among the herbivorous dinosaurs from the Dinosaur Park Formation (upper Campanian) of Alberta, Canada|journal=BMC Ecology|year=2013|volume=13|issue=1 |doi=10.1186/1472-6785-13-14|pages=14|pmid=23557203|pmc=3637170 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2013BMCE...13...14M }}</ref>

===Physiology===
{{Main|Dinosaur physiology}}
Ceratopsians probably had the "low mass-specific metabolic rat[e]" typical of large bodied animals.<ref name="socioecology-resource-268" />

===Sexual dimorphism===
[[File:Ceratopsian skulls.jpg|thumb|Ceratopsid skulls at the [[Natural History Museum of Utah]]|left]]
According to Scott D. Sampson, if ceratopsids were to have [[sexual dimorphism]] modern ecological analogues suggest it would be in their mating signals like horns and frills.<ref name="socioecology-dimorphism-269" /> No convincing evidence for sexual dimorphism in body size or mating signals is known in ceratopsids, although was present in the more primitive ceratopsian ''[[Protoceratops andrewsi]]'' whose sexes were distinguishable based on frill and nasal prominence size.<ref name="socioecology-dimorphism-269" /> This is consistent with other known [[tetrapod]] groups where midsized animals tended to exhibit markedly more sexual dimorphism than larger ones.<ref name="socioecology-dimorphism-270" /> However, if there were sexually dimorphic traits, they may have been soft tissue variations like colorations or [[dewlap]]s that would not have been preserved as fossils.<ref name="socioecology-dimorphism-270" />