Agujaceratops
Name:
Agujaceratops
(Aguja horned face).
Phonetic: A-gu-ha-seh-rah-tops.
Named By: Spencer G. Lucas, Robert M. Sullivan
and Adrian Hunt - 2006.
Synonyms: Chasmosaurus mariscalensis.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Ornithischia, Ceratopsia, Ceratopsidae, Chasmosaurinae.
Species: A. mariscalensis
(type). A. mavericus.
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: Uncertain due to lack of remains.
Known locations: USA - Texas - Aguja
Formation.
Time period: Campanian of the Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Based upon a partial skull
including the brain case, horn foundation, left maxilla (upper
jaw) and right dentary (lower jaw). Further remains have since
been inferred to the genus.
Agujaceratops
originally started out as being assigned as a species to the genus
Chasmosaurus,
another and more common Campanian era ceratospian
dinosaur. However closer analysis by Lucas, Sullivan and Hunt in
2006 of a partial skull revealed key differences between it and
other Chasmosaurus fossils. This led to the
material being removed
from Chasmosaurus and established as a unique
genus, though the
original species name of mariscalensis was retained
to create the new
type species of Agujaceratops mariscalensis in
keeping with
standardised renaming guidelines. The genus name is inspired by the
Aguja Formation where the original holotype was recovered from a bone
bed of remains, combined with ‘ceratops’ which in Ancient Greek
means horned face. The species name of mariscalensis
literally
translates to English as ‘from Mariscal’. Since the holotype was
described, further fragmentary remains have been assigned to the
genus.
Other
dinosaurs of the Aguja Formation that Agujaceratops
likely shared its
habitat with include its relative Chasmosaurus,
as well as the
armoured dinosaurs Edmontonia
and Euoplocephalus
as well as the
hadrosaurid
Angulomastacator
amongst others. Predatory dinosaur
remains from this formation are mostly smaller theropods such as
Saurornitholestes
and Richardostesia.
These dinosaurs probably
wouldn’t have been a serious threat to Agujaceratops,
and most likely
hunted other similarly sized dinosaurs that were easier targets.
One
very serious threat did however live in the Aguja Formation, and this
was the fearsome Deinosuchus,
a giant crocodile
with a reputation for
taking on tyrannosaurs
that could have potentially dragged an
Agujaceratops into the water where it could be
drowned before being
eaten. Not only was Deinosuchus the biggest
predator so far
discovered in the Aguja Formation, but the presence of a semi-aquatic
crocodile combined with the fossils of turtles and ammonites reveals
that Agujaceratops probably lived in coastal
wetlands that would have
been near the coastline of the Western Interior Seaway, a shallow sea
that submerged much of central North America during the Cretaceous.
Further reading
-Chasmosaurus mariscalensis, sp. Nov., a new
ceratopsian dinosaur from
Texas. - Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 9 (2): 137. - T. M. Lehman
- 1989.
- Re-evaluation of Pentaceratops and Chasmosaurus
(Ornithischia:
Ceratopsidae) in the Upper Cretaceous of the Western Interior. Late
Cretaceous Vertebrates from the Western Interior. - New Mexico Museum
of Natural History and Science Bulletin 35:367-370. - S. G. Lucas, R.
M. Sullivan & A. P. Hunt - 2006.
- New specimens of horned dinosaurs from the Aguja Formation of West
Texas, and a revision of Agujaceratops. - Journal
of Systematic
Palaeontology. - T. M. lehman, S. L. Wick & K. R. Barnes -
2016.
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