Zuniceratops By Moondawg

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Zuniceratops By Moondawg

Zoo Tek Phoenix

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Author: Moondawg

Keywords: extinct animals

Released Date: Oct 4 2009
Current ZuniceratopsMD2009.ztd dated 4 October 2009

File Size: 7.11mb

Compatibility : DD or CC

Description : Zuniceratops ('Zuni-horned face') was a Ceratopsian dinosaur from the mid Turonian of the Late Cretaceous Period of what is now New Mexico, United States.
It lived about 10 million years earlier than the more familiar horned Ceratopsidae and provides an important window on their ancestry.
Zuniceratops appears to have been roughly 10-11 feet (three to 3.5 meters) long and three feet (one meter) tall at the hips. It probably weighed 200 to 250 pounds (100 to 150 kilograms). The frill behind its head was fenestrated but lacking epoccipitals. It is the earliest-known ceratopsian to have eyebrow horns and the oldest-known ceratopsian from North America. This set of horns is thought to have grown much larger with age.

Zuniceratops was discovered in 1996, by 8 year old Christopher James Wolfe, son of paleontologist Douglas G. Wolfe, in the Moreno Hill Formation in west-central New Mexico. One skull and the bones from several individuals have been found. More recently, one bone, believed to be a squamosal, has since been found to be an ischium of a Nothronychus.

Zuniceratops is an example of the evolutionary transition between early ceratopsians and the later, larger ceratopsids that had very large horns and frills. This supports the theory that the lineage of ceratopsian dinosaurs may have been North American in origin.

Although the first specimen discovered had single-rooted teeth (unusual for ceratopsians), later fossils had double-rooted teeth. This is evidence that the teeth became double-rooted with age. Zuniceratops was a herbivore like other ceratopsians and was probably a herd animal as well.

Zuniceratops is featured in the Discovery Channel Special, When Dinosaurs Roamed America.

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Additional info:

ZuniceratopsMD2009.ztd                 uca: 68DBF026 dated 4 October 2009

Results From Configuration Checking:

68dbf026.uca date: Sun Oct 04 15:24:50 2009
No Errors or Warnings to show.
Animal Type: 68DBF026

Zuniceratops

It lived about 10 million years earlier than the more familiar horned
Ceratopsidae and provides an important window on their ancestry.
    (plus 4 other paragraphs)

Animal Characteristics:

Habitat: Grassland; Location: North America; Era: Cretaceous
Minimum happiness needed for chance of breeding: 99.
Animal can jump.
Cannot be used in original Zoo Tycoon: cKeeperFoodType (8) is not 0 to 5.

Exhibit Preferences:

Foliage:
Umbrella Thorn Tree, Tall Grass, Grass Tree, Broadleaf Bush
Glossopteris Tree (DD), Monkey Puzzle Tree (DD), Williamsonia Tree (DD)

Rocks:
Large Rock, Small Rock - Medium, Small Rock - Small

Exhibit Construction:

Number of animals allowed per exhibit: 2-6 with 80 squares for each adult.

Exhibit size (for 2 adults): 160 grid squares

Terrain (for exhibit with 160 grid squares):
96 Grass, 32 Dirt, 8 Fresh Water, 24 Deciduous Floor

Foliage (for exhibit with 160 grid squares):
14 grid squares should contain foliage.
Foliage that would give the most happiness: Broadleaf Bush
Since this is a small plant, greatest happiness will occur
if each of the 14 grid squares contains 4 of this plant.

Rocks (for exhibit with 160 grid squares):
13 Small Rock - Small, which is its most liked rock.

Elevation: Of the 160 squares, 2 nonadjacent squares should be elevated.