In Depth
The Tatankaceratops type specimen was pieced together from partial remains before it was named in 2010, and soon after there were murmurings that it was actually a juvenile Triceratops. This stems down to a 2011 study by Nicholas R. Longrich which noted a mix of juvenile and adult characteristics in the skull. Since this time other palaeontologists have expressed their suspicions about Tatankaceratops with the two main theories being that it is either a juvenile Triceratops or one that has a growth defect that stunted its development.
Further Reading
– A New, Small Ceratopsian Dinosaur from the Latest Cretaceous Hell Creek Formation, Northwest South Dakota, United States: A Preliminary Description. – Christopher J. Ott & Peter L. Larson. – In, New Perspectives on Horned Dinosaurs: The Royal Tyrrell Museum Ceratopsian Symposium, Bloomington, Indiana University Press – M. J. Ryan, B. J. Chinnery-Allgeier & D. A. Eberth – 2010. – Titanoceratops ouranos, a giant horned dinosaur from the Late Campanian of New Mexico. – Cretaceous Research. 32 (3): 264–276. – Nicholas R. Longrich – 2011. – Triceratops with a kink: Co-ossification of five distal caudal vertebrae from the Hell Creek Formation of North Dakota. – Cretaceous Research, 108 (2020): 104355. – Matthew M. Canoy Illies & Denver W. Fowler – 2011.
