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Protoceratops
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===Skin impressions and footprints=== {{multiple image |align = right | direction = horizontal |total_width = 450 |image1 = Protoceratops with possible skin impressions.jpg | alt1 = |image2 = Protoceratops footprint.png | alt2 = |footer = AMNH 6418 specimen with possible skin impressions (left), and line diagram of footprint associated with specimen ZPAL Mg D-II/3 (right) }} During the Third Central Asiatic Expedition in 1923, a nearly complete ''Protoceratops'' skeleton (specimen AMNH 6418) was collected at the Flaming Cliffs. Unlike other specimens, it was discovered in a rolled-up position with its [[skull]] preserving a thin, hard, and wrinkled layer of [[Matrix (geology)|matrix]] (surrounding [[sediments]]). This specimen was later described in 1940 by Brown and Schlaikjer, who discussed the nature of the matrix portion. They stated that this layer had a very skin-like texture and covered mostly the left side of the skull from the [[snout]] to the [[neck frill]]. Brown and Schlaikjer discarded the idea of possible skin impressions as this skin-like layer was likely a product of the [[Decomposition|decay]] and burial of the individual, making the sediments become highly attached to the skull.<ref name=Brown1940/> The potential importance of these remains were unrecognized or given attention, and by 2020 the specimen has already been completely prepared losing all traces of this skin-like layer. Some elements were damaged in the process such as the [[Rostrum (anatomy)|rostrum]].<ref name=Green2022>{{cite web|last1=Greenfield|first1=T.|date=2022|title=The lost Protoceratops mummy – Addendum|website=Incertae Sedis|publisher=WordPress|url=https://incertaesedisblog.wordpress.com/2020/04/11/the-lost-protoceratops-mummy/}}</ref> In 2022 Phil R. Bell and colleagues briefly described these potential soft tissues based on the photographs provided by Brown and Schlaikjer, as well as other ceratopsian soft tissues.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Bell|first1=P. R.|last2=Hendrickx|first2=C.|last3=Pittman|first3=M.|last4=Kaye|first4=T. G.|last5=Mayr|first5=G.|date=2022|title=The exquisitely preserved integument of Psittacosaurus and the scaly skin of ceratopsian dinosaurs|journal=Communications Biology|volume=5|number=809|page=809 |doi=10.1038/s42003-022-03749-3|doi-access=free|pmc=9374759|pmid=35962036}}</ref> However, although the initial perception was that the entire skin-like layer had been removed, photographs shared by Czepiński during the same year have revealed that the right side of the skull remains intact, retaining much of this layer and pending further analysis.<ref name=Green2022/> Also from the context of the Polish-Mongolian paleontological expeditions, in 1965 an articulated subadult ''Protoceratops'' skeleton (specimen ZPAL Mg D-II/3) was collected from the Bayn Dzak locality of the Djadokhta Formation. In the 2000s during the [[Fossil preparation|preparation]] of the specimen, a fossilized cast of a four-toed [[digitigrade]] footprint was found below the pelvic girdle. This footprint was described in 2012 by Grzegorz Niedźwiedzki and colleagues who considered it to represent one of the first reported finds of a dinosaur footprint in association with an articulated skeleton, and also the first one reported for ''Protoceratops''.<ref name=Nied2012>{{cite journal|last1=Niedźwiedzki|first1=G.|last2=Singer|first2=T.|last3=Gierliński|first3=G. D.|last4=Lockley|first4=M. G.|date=2012|title=A protoceratopsid skeleton with an associated track from the Upper Cretaceous of Mongolia|journal=Cretaceous Research|volume=33|issue=1 |pages=7–10|doi=10.1016/j.cretres.2011.07.001|bibcode=2012CrRes..33....7N |url=https://juraparkbaltow.pl/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Niedzwiedzki-Singer-Gierlinski-and-Lockley-2011.pdf}}</ref> The limb elements of the skeleton of ZPAL Mg D-II/3 were described in 2019 by paleontologists Justyna Słowiak, Victor S. Tereshchenko and Łucja Fostowicz-Frelik.<ref name=Justyna2019>{{cite journal|last1=Słowiak|first1=J.|last2=Tereshchenko|first2=V. S.|last3=Fostowicz-Frelik|first3=Ł.|date=2019|title=Appendicular skeleton of Protoceratops andrewsi (Dinosauria, Ornithischia): comparative morphology, ontogenetic changes, and the implications for non-ceratopsid ceratopsian locomotion|journal=PeerJ|volume=7|pages=e7324|doi=10.7717/peerj.7324|doi-access=free|pmc=6657679|pmid=31367485}}</ref> Tereshchenko in 2021 fully described the axial skeleton of this specimen.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Tereshchenko|first1=V. S.|date=2021|title=Axial Skeleton of Subadult Protoceratops andrewsi from Djadokhta Formation (Upper Cretaceous, Mongolia)|journal=Paleontological Journal|volume=55|issue=7|pages=1408–1457|doi=10.1134/S0031030121120030|bibcode=2021PalJ...55.1408T |s2cid=247387644 }}</ref>
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