Xenoceratops
Name:
Xenoceratops
(Alien horned face).
Phonetic: Zee-noe-seh-rah-tops.
Named By: M. J. Ryan, D. C. Evans
& K. M. Shepherd - 2012.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Ornithischia, Ceratopsia, Ceratopsidae, Centrosaurinae.
Species: X. foremostensis
(type).
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: Estimated around 6 meters long, but lack
of remains make this figure open to change.
Known locations: Canada, Alberta - Foremost
Formation.
Time period: Campanian of the Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Partial frill and horn
material of what seems to be from at least three individuals.
Described
from remains that were recovered from a bone bed, Xenoceratops
was
labelled by some writers as the ancestor to the world famous
Triceratops.
In actuality however Xenoceratops is considered to
be a
member of the centrosaurinae, one of the two main groups of
ceratopsian
dinosaurs that include the small frilled but large/many
horned varieties of these distinctive dinosaurs. Triceratops
by
contrast is believed to have had its ancestral origins within the
chasmosaurine group. However, because Xenoceratops
has been
described upon very incomplete fossil material, further discoveries,
if they happen, may lead palaeontologists to think in a different
direction.
The
actual importance of Xenoceratops actually comes
from the fact that it
comes from a seventy-eight million year old deposit. At the time of
its discovery (and writing of this article) this makes Xenoceratops
the oldest known horned dinosaur from Canada. Xenoceratops
is not
however the oldest known horned dinosaur from North America, that
title is held by Zuniceratops
from the United States.
The
genus name Xenoceratops loosely translates as
‘alien horned face’
while the species name means ‘from Foremost’, a nearby village
where the type remains were discovered.
Further reading
A new ceratopsid from the Foremost Formation (middle Campanian) of
Alberta, M. J. Ryan, D. C. Evans, K. M. Shepherd -
2012.
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