Crittendenceratops' squamosal bone. (New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science)
A restoration of the Crittendenceratops krzyzanowskii. (Sergey Krasovskiy)
Posted on 12/18/2018 8:49:20 AM PST by ETL
A team of paleontologists recently announced the discovery of a new horned dinosaur — a "cousin" of the Triceratops — in southern Arizona.
The new species, Crittendenceratops krzyzanowskii, was named after the rock formation the fossils were buried under (Fort Crittenden Formation) as well as the late amateur scientist Stan Krzyzanowski, who first found the fossils.
The bones of the dinosaur were uncovered underneath 73-million-year-old rocks about 20 years ago southeast of Tucson, but a team from the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science (NMMNH) recently studied the specimen and determined it was a new species. Their findings were published in NMMNH's bulletin. ..."
The dinosaur was likely 11 feet long and weighed around 1,500 pounds, researchers said. The Phoenix New Times compared the size of the creature to an elephant, explaining it's part of the Ceratopsidae family. ..."
"The significance of this discovery is that Crittendenceratops represents the youngest member of Nasutoceratopsini and that this group was still living in North America near the end of the Cretaceous," Dalman said. "It coexisted with two other groups of horned dinosaurs (ceratopsians): centrosaurs and chasmosaurs. It also shows that ceratopsian dinosaurs were highly diverse both morphological and taxonomical."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
A restoration of the Crittendenceratops krzyzanowskii. (Sergey Krasovskiy)
...name it the Hillerytaurus...
I suspect they would make wonderful roasts and steaks...
You know how deer can have multiple points and elephant tusks are often different.
I think a lot of the ceratops in the picture are actually of the same species and just have a different amount of growth in their horns and neck ridge. The smaller ones are likely just younger...I can accept speciation (gazelle, white tail deer, mule deer, reindeer, etc) in the ceratops, but too many of these look too close together for me...
That’s my hypothesis. I suppose the only way to confirm it would be to do DNA testing of the various versions.
I've heard/read that precise thing said about several dinosaur species, including them, the Ceratopsians, in various documentaries and online articles.
Plus how come they are all in North America (except the sole Chinese one)...where are all the South American, Australian, Africa, and European ceratops? Was there a wall built to keep them all in one place? Was the Chinese certops an outcast among Asian dinosaurs because he had no cousins?
Coool - I’m waaaaay behind on my reading so haven’t kept up with my dinosaurology in the past 10...no more like 15 years
It was a one-eyed, one-horned, flyin’ purple people eater...
More Grant Money wows paleontologists. It was discovered years ago.
It takes a village.
Then again, the distinctions may not be based solely on the horns and frills.
With a tutu it would look like Kirsten Sinema.
true - I just always ponder how much they actually have since so many of the skeletons are never found complete and a lot of it is projected from what they have managed to find.
Now that’s creative!
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