A
new species of horned dinosaur has been found in Canada, named
Xenoceratops ("alien horned face") for its unusual horn arrangement.
Though skull fragments of Xenoceratops had been found in Canada in
1958, they were not identified and left forgotten in a museum drawer. It
is only recently they have been correctly identified. Xenoceratops
lived 80 million years ago in the Cretaceous period and gr
ew
to 6-metres long, weighing around 2 tons. As well as the brow horns
you'd expect from a relative of Triceratops, it had two huge spikes at
the top of its large frill. It's thought this impressive headgear would
have been used in mating displays or shows of dominance.
This
important discovery sheds more light on the evolution of ceratopsids
such as Triceratops. Xenoceratops is one of the oldest ceratopsid
specimens found and a reminder of how much more we have to learn about
this group. Dr. Michael Ryan (Cleveland Museum of Natural History, and
lead author on a new paper describing this find) commented,
"Xenoceratops shows us that even the geologically oldest ceratopsids had
massive spikes on their head shields and that their cranial
ornamentation would only become more elaborate as new species evolved."
Image credit: Mark Schultz.
http://www.livescience.com/
http://
The paper is available here: http://
A
new species of horned dinosaur has been found in Canada, named
Xenoceratops ("alien horned face") for its unusual horn arrangement.
Though skull fragments of Xenoceratops had been found in Canada in 1958, they were not identified and left forgotten in a museum drawer. It is only recently they have been correctly identified. Xenoceratops lived 80 million years ago in the Cretaceous period and gr
Though skull fragments of Xenoceratops had been found in Canada in 1958, they were not identified and left forgotten in a museum drawer. It is only recently they have been correctly identified. Xenoceratops lived 80 million years ago in the Cretaceous period and gr
ew
to 6-metres long, weighing around 2 tons. As well as the brow horns
you'd expect from a relative of Triceratops, it had two huge spikes at
the top of its large frill. It's thought this impressive headgear would
have been used in mating displays or shows of dominance.
This important discovery sheds more light on the evolution of ceratopsids such as Triceratops. Xenoceratops is one of the oldest ceratopsid specimens found and a reminder of how much more we have to learn about this group. Dr. Michael Ryan (Cleveland Museum of Natural History, and lead author on a new paper describing this find) commented, "Xenoceratops shows us that even the geologically oldest ceratopsids had massive spikes on their head shields and that their cranial ornamentation would only become more elaborate as new species evolved."
Image credit: Mark Schultz.
http://www.livescience.com/
http://
The paper is available here: http://
This important discovery sheds more light on the evolution of ceratopsids such as Triceratops. Xenoceratops is one of the oldest ceratopsid specimens found and a reminder of how much more we have to learn about this group. Dr. Michael Ryan (Cleveland Museum of Natural History, and lead author on a new paper describing this find) commented, "Xenoceratops shows us that even the geologically oldest ceratopsids had massive spikes on their head shields and that their cranial ornamentation would only become more elaborate as new species evolved."
Image credit: Mark Schultz.
http://www.livescience.com/
http://
The paper is available here: http://
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