Serendipaceratops
Name:
Serendipaceratops
(serendipitous horned face).
Phonetic: Se-ren-dip-ah-seh-rah-tops.
Named By: T. Rich & P. Vickers-Rich
- 2003.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Ornithischia, Ceratopsia.
Species: S. arthurcclarkei
(type).
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: Preserved length of the Ulna about 16
centimetres. When based upon Leptoceratops
proportions and scaled to
the size of the holotype, roughly estimated at about 2.3 meters long
Known locations: Australia - Wonthaggi Formation.
Time period: Aptian of the Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Almost complete ulna (one
of the forearm bones).
Serendipaceratops
is often regarded as a dubious dinosaur genus, but if it is not,
then it is actually the first ceratopsian
dinosaur to be discovered as
living in Australia. The story begins in 1993 when during the
Dinosaur Cove Project, an isolated almost complete ulna bone (the
same as one of the ones that you have in your lower arm) was found.
Initially the bone was thought to belong to a theropod dinosaur, but
when a palaeontologist visiting from Canada named Dale Russel saw the
bone he remarked at how similar it was to North American ceratopsian
dinosaurs such as Leptoceratops.
In 2003, the bone was finally
used as the basis of a new genus named Serendipaceratops.
The species
name arthurcclarkei is in honour of one of the greatest science
fiction writers of all time, Arthur C. Clarke.
The
main reason why Serendipaceratops is often treated
as a dubious genus
is because of the very fact that it is only known from a single bone.
This makes it very hard to be certain about attributing further
fossils to Serendipaceratops, especially if they
don’t come with an
exactly identical ulna as the holotype. This is in part due to the
harsh climate of Australia which can quickly destroy exposed fossils
through erosion, and many prehistoric animals from Australia are
known only from incomplete, often single bones (Ozraptor
being an
example). A study in 2008 (Agnolin et al) also cast some
doubt upon the validity of the Serendipaceratops
ulna being ceratopsian
as its features can be seen in other ornithischian dinosaurs, and
belong to something else such as the ankylosaur
Minmi.
A
later study in 2014 (Rich et al) however re-assessed the ulna,
and found that while it does feature some generic ornithischian
qualities, it is still enough like other known ceratopsian dinosaurs
to confirm it as ceratopsian and nothing else. What this means is
that aside from being the first Australian ceratopsian dinosaur, it
is the second ceratopsian genus known to have lived in the southern
portion of the Mesozoic landmasses that was called Gondwana (the
first was Notoceratops from South America, though at the time of
writing there are still some questions about this being a true
ceratopsian dinosaur).
The
question remains as to how a ceratopsian dinosaur came to live in
Australia when this type of dinosaur is thought to have originated
either somewhere in Asia or North America. First it must be
remembered that during the Mesozoic Australia much closer to the other
continents than what it is today, and even though by the late
Jurassic when dinosaurs similar to Serendipaceratops
began to appear
Australia was already splitting away, it is not impossible that early
ancestors to Serendipaceratops might have been able
to Island hop to
Australia during periodic changes in sea levels that may have revealed
temporary (lasting a few hundred/thousand years at a time) land
bridges paving a way. It should also be remembered that other types
of dinosaurs such as ankylosaurs
and possibly even spinosaurs
all made
their way to Australia even though these types of dinosaurs did not
appear in other parts of the world until after Australia is thought to
have split away from the rest of the world.
Serendipaceratops
would have been a small ceratopsian dinosaur, and of the kind of
ceratopsian that would lack the elaborate horn and frill displays of
the larger ceratopsians that lived towards the end of the Cretaceous.
Possible predatory threats to Serendipaceratops
would include theropod
dinosaurs similar to genera like Australovenator
which would have been
roaming around Australia at about the same approximate time as
Serendipaceratops.
Further reading
- Protoceratopsian? ulnae from Australia. - Records of the
Queen Victoria Museum Launceston 113:1-12. - T. Rich &
P. Vickers-Rich - 2003.
- A reappraisal of the Cretaceous non-avian dinosaur faunas from
Australia and New Zealand: Evidence for their Gondwanan affinities.
- Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, 8(2): 257-300 -
F. L. Agnolin, M. D. Ezcurra, D. F. Pais &
S.
W. Salisbury.
- Serendipaceratops arthurcclarkei Rich
& Vickers-Rich,
2003
is an Australian Early Cretaceous ceratopsian. - Alcheringa. -
Thomas H. Rich, Benjamin P. Kear, Robert Sinclair, Brenda
Chinnery, Kenneth Carpenter, Mary L. McHugh & Patricia
Vickers-Rich - 2014.
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