Protoceratops andrewsi is a well-known ceratopsian dinosaur from the Djadokhta Formation (Upper Cretaceous, Mongolia). Since the 1920s, numerous skeletons of different ontogenetic stages from hatchlings to adults, including fully articulated specimens, have been discovered, but the postcranial anatomy of Protoceratops has not been studied in detail. A new, mostly articulated subadult individual provides an excellent opportunity for us to comprehensively describe the anatomy of the limb skeleton, to compare to other ceratopsian dinosaurs, and to study the ontogenetic and intraspecific variation in this species. New data provided by the specimen shed light on the lifestyle of P. andrewsi. The young subadult individuals present an array of morphological characters intermediate between the bipedal Psittacosaurus and fully quadrupedal adult P. andrewsi. We compare these observations with a broad range of non-ceratopsid Neoceratopsia (of various locomotor adaptations) and Psittacosauridae (obligate bipeds), which gives us insight into the evolution of the skeletal characters informative for the postural change in ceratopsian dinosaurs.
The methods for reconstruction of the initial dimensions of distorted and damaged vertebrae in fossil tetrapods are elaborated and tested, using the axial skeleton of horned dinosaurs from the Upper Cre taceous of Mongolia as an example. These methods allow not only more reliable resolution of the problems of vertebrae preservation for processing morphometric data, but also improvement of reconstructions of the vertebral column, as skeletons are mounted for museum exposition.
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