Dinosaur Zoo: Minitrikes

Although you are all familiar with Triceratops, the Ceratopsid suborder hosts a whole number of other species. The earliest of these species were small and didn't really look like the Cretaceous Trike we all know from our childhood. 

 Microceratus

This early member of the Ceratopsids gives you with its small neckfrill a small hint that it's related to its more famous cousin Triceratops. 
There are however lots of differences: Microceratus is bipedal, hornless and only 60 cm long. This would've made it perfect prey for numerous of predators such as Velociraptor and species of Troodon. Luckily these little critters are fast runners and live in a large family: lots of eyes make it more difficult for a predator to stay unnoticed. 
Remains of it have been found in the Gobi Desert in Mongolia. Because of this we've made its enclosure look as much as possible as its original habitat with lots of sand and shadowy spots where it can hide.

Because of its small size and its sharp parrot-like beak we've used parrot DNA, in particular that of lovebirds, to fill in the gaps of the dinosaur's DNA. We don't know how smart the original Microceratus was, but our minitrikes showed they had enough intelligence to face their keepers with certain challenges: they are pickpockets, try to open the old bolts of the doors of their enclosure and won't obey people they don't know (they'd even bite their ankles to show dominance). Luckily we now know how to deal with them by learning them certain tricks to behave when somebody enters their ground. And of course the keepers empty their pockets before entering...

Length: 50 - 60 cm.
Weight: 2 - 3 kg.
Time Period: Early Cretaceous.
Diet: Mostly plants, fruits and seeds. Sometimes insects are given as a treat.
Name meaning: Small horned.

 Psittacosaurus

This larger animal is also part of the Ceratopsids, only this one is even more primitive than Microceratus. It even lacks the frill. 
Psittacosaurus behaves different than its neighboors: it's mostly active during the mourning, evening and night and isn't a family animal. It just minds its own business and accepts the little Microceratus family in its pen. 
Psittacosaurus is also quite different in the way it looks: on its tail it has a thick row of quill-like feathers and on its arms it carries elongated scales. It's also not so beautiful and has large jugal bones which kinda makes it comparable with a warthog-parrot cross. The warthog part actually is visible in one of its special traits: it lives in burrows. It shares these with the Microceratus that happily use them as a safe heaven to spend the night. 

Note that no warthog DNA is used to create this animal. Again parrot DNA is used, but Psittacosaurus doesn't show that much intelligence as Microceratus. Our scientists think because of this that the intelligence level of our animals is comparable with the ones that lived during the Early Cretaceous in Mongolia and is not a result of the parrot DNA.

Length: 2 meters.
Weight: 55 kg.
Time period: Early Cretaceous.
Diet: Plants, seeds and fruits. Also insects and small reptiles such as lizards take in a small part of its diet.
Name meaning: Parrot lizard.