New horned dinosaurs from Utah provide evidence for intracontinental dinosaur endemism

Utahceratops (above) and Kosmoceratops (below).
© Lukas Panzarin

I am super excited to help spread the word on two newly named chasmosaurine ceratopsians: Utahceratops gettyi and Kosmoceratops richardsoni!! I know I have been anxiously awaiting these guys for a while now and I am very happy to see them finally published. Both taxa were found in the Kaiparowits Formation of  Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, southern Utah. Utahceratops was discovered in 2000 by Mike Getty and is thus far the most abundant ceratopsian found in the monument, known from 6 localities. It is estimated that Utahceratops would have stood 6 feet tall at the shoulder and hips and was 18 to 22 feet in length, weighing about 3-4 tonnes. Kosmoceratops would have been slightly smaller, perhaps 15 feet  long and 2.5 tonnes, with 15 bony horns/horn-like features on its skull, making it one of the more ornate-headed dinosaur known. Subadults and adults are known for both of these new species.

For those of you who have seen the various talks, and specifically the new paper in the recently published in 'New Perspectives on Horned Dinosaurs' (Getty et al. 2010), referring to these animals as "Kaiparowits New Taxon A" and "Kaiparowits New Taxon B" you will be happy to know that Taxon A is Kosmoceratops and Taxon B is Utahceratops. At least three individuals (an adult and two subadults) of Utahceratops were recovered from one monodominant bonebed, the first of its kind in the Kaiparowits Formation.

Chasmosaurus irvinensis is also addressed and renamed Vagaceratops irvinensis (“wandering horned face”) in this paper, as it was found to share closest affinities not with Chasmosaurus, as originally believed, but with Kosmoceratops. The study has helped to show that there is some sort of northern and southern provincialism taking place during the Campanian stage of western North America, also known as Laramidia [read more here]. Both specimens are curated at the Utah Museum of Natural History in Salt Lake City, Utah, and are currently on display for the rest of this year.

Citation: 
Sampson, S. D., M. A. Loewen, A. A. Farke, E. M. Roberts, C. A. Forster, J. A. Smith, and A. L. Titus. 2010. New horned dinosaurs from Utah provide evidence for intracontinental dinosaur endemism. PLoS ONE 5(9): e12292. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0012292


REFERENCE:
Getty, M.A., M.A. Loewen, E. Roberts, A. L. Titus, and S.D. Sampson. 2010. Taphonomy of Horned Dinosaurs (Ornithischia: Ceratopsidae) from the Late Campanian Kaiparowits Formation, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah. Pp. 478-494 in M. J. Ryan, B. J. Chinnery-Allgeier, and D. A. Eberth (eds.), New Perspectives on Horned Dinosaurs. Indiana University Press, Bloomington.


From the official press release:

Amazing Horned Dinosaurs Unearthed on “Lost Continent”
Discoveries Include Bizarre Beast with 15 Horns

September 22, 2010 – Two remarkable new species of horned dinosaurs have been found in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, southern Utah. The giant plant-eaters were inhabitants of the “lost continent” of Laramidia, formed when a shallow sea flooded the central region of North America, isolating the eastern and western portions of the continent for millions of years during the Late Cretaceous Period. The newly discovered dinosaurs, close relatives of the famous Triceratops, were announced today in PLoS ONE, the online open-access journal produced by the Public Library of Science.

The study, funded in large part by the Bureau of Land Management and the National Science Foundation, was led by Scott Sampson and Mark Loewen of the Utah Museum of Natural History (UMNH) and Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Utah. Additional authors include Andrew Farke (Raymond Alf Museum), Eric Roberts (James Cook University), Joshua Smith (University of Utah), Catherine Forster (George Washington University), and Alan Titus (Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument).

Image of Utahceratops from "The Whirlpool of Life"

The bigger of the two new dinosaurs, with a skull 2.3 meters (about 7 feet) long, is Utahceratops gettyi (U-tah-SARA-tops get-EE-i). The first part of the name combines the state of origin with ceratops, Greek for “horned face.” The second part of the name honors Mike Getty, paleontology collections manager at the Utah Museum of Natural History and the discoverer of this animal. In addition to a large horn over the nose, Utahceratops has short and blunt eye horns that project strongly to the side rather than upward, much more like the horns of modern bison than those of Triceratops or other ceratopsians. Mark Loewen, one of the authors on the paper, likened Utahceratops to “a giant rhino with a ridiculously supersized head.”

Image of Kosmoceratops from "Scratching the Surface"

Second of the new species is Kosmoceratops richardsoni (KOZ-mo-SARA-tops RICH-ard-SON-i). Here, the first part of the name refers to kosmos, Latin for “ornate,” and ceratops, once again meaning “horned face.” The latter part of the name honors Scott Richardson, the volunteer who discovered two skulls of this animal. Kosmoceratops also has sideways oriented eye horns, although much longer and more pointed than in Utahceratops. In all, Kosmoceratops possesses a total of 15 horns—one over the nose, one atop each eye, one at the tip of each cheek bone, and ten across the rear margin of the bony frill—making it the most ornate-headed dinosaur known. Scott Sampson, the paper’s lead author, claimed that, “Kosmoceratops is one of the most amazing animals known, with a huge skull decorated with an assortment of bony bells and whistles.”

Although much speculation has ensued about the function of ceratopsian horns and frills—from fighting off predators to recognizing other members of the same species or controlling body temperature—the dominant idea today is that these features functioned first and foremost to enhance reproductive success. Sampson added, “Most of these bizarre features would have made lousy weapons to fend off predators. It’s far more likely that they were used to intimidate or do battle with rivals of the same sex, as well as to attract individuals of the opposite sex.”

Monumental Dinosaurs on a Small Continent
The dinosaurs were discovered in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (GSENM), which encompasses 1.9 million acres of high desert terrain in south-central Utah. This vast and rugged region, part of the National Landscape Conservation System administered by the Bureau of Land Management, was the last major area in the lower 48 states to be formally mapped by cartographers. Today GSENM is the largest national monument in the United States. Sampson added that, “Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is now one of the country’s last great, largely unexplored dinosaur boneyards.”

For most of the Late Cretaceous, exceptionally high sea levels flooded the low-lying portions of several continents around the world. In North America, a warm, shallow sea called the Western Interior Seaway extended from the Arctic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico, subdividing the continent into eastern and western landmasses, known as Appalachia and Laramidia, respectively. Whereas little is known of the plants and animals that lived on Appalachia, the rocks of Laramidia exposed in the Western Interior of North America have generated a plethora of dinosaur remains. Laramidia was less than one-third the size of present day North America, approximating the area of Australia.

Most known Laramidian dinosaurs were concentrated in a narrow belt of plains sandwiched between the seaway to the east and mountains to the west. Today, thanks to an abundant fossil record and more than a century of collecting by paleontologists, Laramidia is the best known major landmass for the entire Age of Dinosaurs, with dig sites spanning from Alaska to Mexico. Utah was located in the southern part of Laramidia, which has yielded far fewer dinosaur remains than the fossil-rich north. The world of dinosaurs was much warmer than the present day; Utahceratops and Kosmoceratops lived in a subtropical swampy environment about 100 km from the seaway.

Distribution of ceratopsians during the Campanian
stage of the Late Cretaceous period  

Beginning in the 1960’s, paleontologists began to notice that the same major groups of dinosaurs seemed to be present all over this Late Cretaceous landmass, but different species of these groups occurred in the north (for example, Alberta and Montana) than in the south (New Mexico and Texas). This finding of “dinosaur provincialism” was very puzzling, given the giant body sizes of many of the dinosaurs together with the diminutive dimensions of Laramidia. Currently, there are five giant (rhino-to-elephant-sized) mammals on the entire continent of Africa. Seventy-six million years ago, there may have been more than two dozen giant dinosaurs living on a landmass about one-quarter that size. Mark Loewen asks, “How could so many different varieties of giant animals have co-existed on such a small chunk of real estate?” One option is that there was a greater abundance of food during the Cretaceous. Another is that dinosaurs did not need to eat as much, perhaps because of slower metabolic rates more akin to those of modern day lizards and crocodiles than to those of mammals and birds. Whatever the factors permitting the presence of so many dinosaurs, it appears that some kind of barrier near the latitude of northern Utah and Colorado limited the exchange of dinosaur species north and south. Possibilities include physical barriers such as mountains, or climatic barriers that resulted in distinct northern and southern plant communities. Testing of these ideas have been severely hampered by a dearth of dinosaurs from the southern part of Laramidia. The new fossils from GSENM are now filling that major gap.

During the past decade, crews from the University of Utah and several partner institutions (e.g., the Utah Geologic Survey, the Raymond Alf Museum of Paleontology, and the Bureau of Land Management) have unearthed a new assemblage of more than a dozen dinosaurs in GSENM. In addition to Utahceratops and Kosmoceratops, the collection includes a variety of other plant-eating dinosaurs—among them duck-billed hadrosaurs, armored ankylosaurs, and dome-headed pachycephalosaurs—together with carnivorous dinosaurs great and small, from “raptor-like” predators to mega-sized tyrannosaurs (not T. rex but rather its smaller-bodied relatives). Also recovered have been fossil plants, insect traces, clams, fishes, amphibians, lizards, turtles, crocodiles, and mammals, offering a direct glimpse into this entire ancient ecosystem. Most remarkable of all is that virtually every identifiable dinosaur variety found in GSENM turns out to be new to science, offering dramatic confirmation of the dinosaur provincialism hypothesis. Many of these animals are still under study, but two have been previously named: the giant duck-billed hadrosaur Gryposaurus monumentensis and the raptor-like theropod Hagryphus giganteus.

Utahceratops and Kosmoceratops are part of a recent spate of ceratopsian dinosaur discoveries. Andrew Farke, another of the paper’s authors, stated, "The past year has been a remarkable one for horned dinosaurs, with several new species named. The new Utah creatures are the icing on the cake, showing anatomy even more bizarre than typically expected for a group of animals known for its weird skulls."

Clearly many more dinosaurs remain to be unearthed in southern Utah. “It’s an exciting time to be a paleontologist,” Sampson added. “With many new dinosaurs still discovered each year, we can be quite certain that plenty of surprises still await us out there.”


© ReBecca K. Hunt-Foster unless other wise noted

Ajkaceratops

Ősi, A., Butler, R.J. & Weishampel, D.B. 2010. A Late Cretaceous ceratopsian dinosaur from Europe with Asian affinities. Nature 465: 466–468. doi: 10.1038/nature09019 [link]

"Figure 1: Anatomy of Ajkaceratops kozmai gen. et sp. nov." 

image from paper.

Ceratopsians (horned dinosaurs) represent a highly diverse and abundant radiation of non-avian dinosaurs known primarily from the Cretaceous period (65–145 million years ago). This radiation has been considered to be geographically limited to Asia and western North America with only controversial remains reported from other continents. Here we describe new ceratopsian cranial material from the Late Cretaceous of Iharkút, Hungary, from a coronosaurian ceratopsian, Ajkaceratops kozmai. Ajkaceratops is most similar to ‘bagaceratopsids’ such as Bagaceratops and Magnirostris, previously known only from Late Cretaceous east Asia. The new material unambiguously demonstrates that ceratopsians occupied Late Cretaceous Europe and, when considered with the recent discovery of possible leptoceratopsid teeth from Sweden, indicates that the clade may have reached Europe on at least two independent occasions. European Late Cretaceous dinosaur faunas have been characterized as consisting of a mix of endemic ‘relictual’ taxa and ‘Gondwanan’ taxa, with typical Asian and North American groups largely absent. Ajkaceratops demonstrates that this prevailing biogeographical hypothesis is overly simplified and requires reassessment. Iharkút was part of the western Tethyan archipelago, a tectonically complex series of island chains between Africa and Europe, and the occurrence of a coronosaurian ceratopsian in this locality may represent an early Late Cretaceous ‘island-hopping’ dispersal across the Tethys Ocean.

Thanks to TH for the heads up!

Scholarship Supporting Neoceratopsian Research

The Dinosaur Research Institute has several scolarships available (not sure if they are for Canadian students only or not). One that perked my interest is the "Scholarship Supporting Neoceratopsian Research" created by Darren Tanke - pretty cool! 

© ReBecca K. Hunt-Foster

The first Triceratops bonebed ...

Congrats to Josh Mathews on his first publication! And in Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology of all places! Josh has worked with the Burpee Museum of Natural History for quite some time and is finishing up his Masters degree at Northern Illinois University. I have known Josh for a number of years. We both worked on very similar Master's projects, so we have been in contact quite a bit over the years helping each other out. I know I was thrilled when I found out about this site - finally, a Triceratops bonebed! It has been interesting to see the project flesh out and to finally have the paper in print!

Josh and the Burpee crew found 130 bones and bone fragments belonging to Triceratops in the Hell Creek Formation during exploration between 2005 - 2007. The remains, found in a massive mudstone, indicated a minimum number of three juvenile individuals, based on the presence of three left nasals. The site was dominated by cranial and appendicular elements, with analysis showing that the remains were sorted by currents, washing away smaller elements. This site is the first published occurrence of a Triceratops bonebed.



Mathews, J. C., Brusatte, S. L., Williams, S. A. and Henderson, M. D. 2009. The first Triceratops bonebed and its implications for gregarious behavior. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 29(1):286-290

"Ceratopsid dinosaurs are some of the most common fossils in Upper Cretaceous terrestrial strata of western North America. They are often found in bonebeds, which are accumulations of vertebrate fossils from more than one individual that are concentrated along a bedding plane or throughout a single bed (Eberth and Getty, 2005). For example, 20 bonebeds have been reported from Dinosaur Provincial Park in Alberta, Canada, which contain Centrosaurus and Styracosaurus (Visser,1986; Ryan et al., 2001; Eberth and Getty, 2005). Additional bonebeds from localities across western North America have yielded remains of Agujaceratops (Lehman, 1982, 1989, Lucas et al., 2006), Anchiceratops (Dodson, 1996, Ryan et al., 2001), Einiosaurus (Rogers, 1990, Sampson, 1995), Pachyrhinosaurus (Langston, 1975; Tanke, 1988; Ryan et al., 2001), Styracosaurus (Dodson et al., 2004), Torosaurus (Hunt, 2005), and Zuniceratops (Wolfe and Kirkland, 1998). Some of these bonebeds contain the remains of hundreds to possibly thousands of individuals and represent catastrophic mass death assemblages that strongly indicate herding behavior (Eberth, 1996). Others contain significantly fewer individuals, with some preserving fewer than five.

Although Triceratops is the most common dinosaur in the terminal Cretaceous Hell Creek Formation (White et al., 1998), known from over 50 singleton specimens collected since the late nineteenth century, no bonebeds or associations of multiple individuals have previously been reported. A new locality in the latest Maastrichtian Hell Creek Formation of southeastern Montana, discovered in the summer of 2005 by a field crew from the Burpee Museum of Natural History (BMR) in Rockford, Illinois, contains the remains of three juvenile-sized Triceratops. This is the first occurrence of multiple individuals of Triceratops in the same quarry and raises potentially interesting questions regarding Triceratops paleobiology."

Homer the Triceratops at the Burpee Museum. See more pictures here.

Mathews, J. C., Brusatte, S. L., Williams, S. A., & Henderson, M. D. (2009). The first Triceratops bonebed and its implications for gregarious behavior Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 29 (1), 286-290

Insufficiency!?!

The wonderful Richard Butler was nice enough to make a PDF of the Nedoceratops paper discussed in my last post. As mentioned in the comment section of the last post, the etymology of the new name Nedoceratops is "nedo" the Russian prefix for insufficiency with the generic name Ceratops. I, personally, think that naming a creature as insufficient is not very nice. There are plenty of fossils out there named on the basis of only the skull, so why is this particular one so insufficient?! If it is so insufficient why not let someone who is interested in the poor creature work on it. The name had been out there for 102 years! 102! What was wrong with letting it remain until someone who is interested in it work on it rather than just giving it a sad, rude (in my opinion) name? I think Diceratus (Greek di ‘‘two,’’ Greek ceratos ‘‘horned’’), was a far better name in comparison. But that is just my opinion.

Edit: I asked Dr. Ukrainsky in an email what he meant by "Nedo" and this was his response: "Russian prefix "nedo" (insufficiency sensu lato) means, that this ceratopsian has lack: nasal horn absent."

Reference:

Ukrainsky, A. S. 2007. A Replacement Name for Diceratops Lull, 1905 (Reptilia: Ornithischia: Ceratopidae). Zoosystematica Rossica 16(2): 292.

Neoceratopsian publications for 2008

I thought I would compile a list of all the neoceratopsian related publications (papers and abstracts) from this past year. Hopefully I did not miss anything, but if you know of one I might have missed, please let me know (Update: see the comment below for those that I did miss).

March 2008
Horner, J.R. and Goodwin, M.B. 2008. Ontogeny of cranial epi-ossifications in Triceratops. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 28(1): 134-144. Simplifying the names for the epi-ossifications found on skull of ceratopsians, also discussing the ontogeny and timing of the fusion of epi-ossifications [blog link]

Mateus, O. 2008. Two ornithischian dinosaurs renamed; Microceratops Bohlin 1953 and Diceratops Lull 1905. Journal of Paleontology 82(2): 423. Diceratops becomes Diceratus and Microceratops becomes Microceratus [blog post]

June 2008
Tereschenko, V.S. 2008. Adaptive features of protoceratopoids (Ornithischia, Neoceratopsia). Paleontological Journal 42(3): 273-286.

September 2008
Farke, A. 2008. Evolution and function of the supracranial sinuses in ceratopsid dinosaurs and the frontal sinuses in bovid mammals. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 28(Suppl. to 3): 76A. Andy talks a little bit about this on his blog.

Keenan, S. 2008. Taphonomy of a Triceratops bonebed from the Upper Hell Creek Formation, Garfield County, Montana. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 28(Suppl. to 3): 99A. A poster at SVP discussing the second known Triceratops bonebed, preserving a minimum of three individuals.

Mallon, J., Holmes, R., Anderson, J., Farke, A, and Ryan, M. 2008. New information on two chasmosaurine ceratopsids from the Horseshoe Canyon Formation (Late Cretaceous) of Alberta, Canada. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 28(Suppl. to 3): 111A. Another poster from SVP discussing undescribed cranial material attributed to Anchiceratops and Arrhinoceratops. I look forward to a publication on this one!

Miyashita, T. 2008. Two previously undescribed skeletons of Leptoceratops (Ornithischia, Neoceratopsia) from the latest Cretaceous of southern Alberta. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 28(Suppl. to 3): 117A. Articulated postcrania from the Willow Creek Formation and an associated skull and postcrania from the Scollard Formation are now added to the list of Leptoceratops specimens.

Roberts, E.M., Tapanila, L., Mijal, B. 2008 Taphonomy and sedimentology of storm-generated continental shell beds; a case example from the Cretaceous Western Interior Basin. Journal of Geology, 116(5): 462-479. The shell bed taphonomy is associated with a ceratopsian quarry from the Kaiparowits Formation in southern Utah.

Tanoue, K., You, H., and Dodson, P. 2008. Comparative morphology of basal ceratopsian dentition. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 28(Suppl. to 3): 151A.

Tumarkin-Deratzian, A. 2008. Long bone surface textures as ontogenetic markers in centrosaurine ceratopsids. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 28(Suppl. to 3): 154A. Yeaa! Another postcrania poster! Is there a textural change in long bones that can help assess increasing size/age classes, and is it consistent across taxa? Looking forward to a paper on this one as well.

Varriale, F. 2008. Dental microwear and jaw mechanics in basal Neoceratopsians. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 28(Suppl. to 3): 156A.

October 2008
Alifanov, V.R. 2008. The tiny horned dinosaur Gobiceratops minutus gen. et sp. nov. (Bagaceratopidae, Neoceratopsia) from the Upper Cretaceous of Mongolia. Paleontological Journal 42 (6): 621-633.

Currie, P.J., Langston, W., Jr., and Tanke, D. H. 2008. A New horned Dinosaur from an Upper Cretaceous Bone Bed in Alberta. National Research Council of Canada Research Press, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. 144 p. Includes the following papers discussing the new Pachyrhinosaurus lakustai (order your copy of this book here)-

• A new species of Pachyrhinosaurus (Dinosauria, Ceratopsidae) from the Upper Cretaceous of Alberta, Canada. by P.J. Currie, W. Langston, Jr., and D.H. Tanke
• Comments on the quarry map and preliminary taphonomic observations of the Pachyrhinosaurus (Dinosauria, Ceratopsidae) bone bed at Pipestone Creek, Alberta, Canada. by P.E. Ralrick and D.H. Tanke
• Structure of the brain cavity and inner ear of the centrosaurine ceratopsid dinosaur Pachyrhinosaurus based on CT scanning and 3D visualization. by L.M. Witmer and R.C. Ridgely

Krauss, D.A, Pezon, A.E., Nguyen, P.H., Hirsch J.R. and Sanchez-Bravo, G. 2008. Modern Analogs for Ceratopsian Dinosaurs: A Complicated Issue. Geological Society of America - Abstract with Programs [link to abstract]

November 2008
Fricke, H.C. and Pearson, D.A. 2008. Stable isotope evidence for changes in dietary niche partitioning among hadrosaurian and ceratopsian dinosaurs of the Hell Creek Formation, North Dakota. Paleobiology 34(4): 534-552. I have not gotten a copy of this one yet, I'll have to get back to you.

Hunt, R.K. and Lehman, T.L. 2008. Attributes of the ceratopsian dinosaur Torosaurus, and new material from the Javelina Formation (Maastrichtian) of Texas. Journal of Paleontology 82(6): 1127-1138. Yes, this is my paper. I guess I have not wanted to write to much about this, even if I am proud of it, for fear of sounding like I am a arrogant jerk (or something like that). You can read the abstract at the link to the right. I will try to write some about it soon. [blog link]

Look forward to a FLOOD of new ceratopsian papers next year with the publication of a new book, the results of 2007's Ceratopsian Symposium that was held at the Royal Tyrrell Museum (September 22-23, 2007). You can still see a list of the talks from that meeting here. Something to look forward too!!

Finally.....

Have you ever had one of those moments in your life that you thought would never, ever happen? Something people told you you could not do? Something people told you would never amount to anything? Something you spent years of your life working on??

I have. And today hell froze over. That's right, my first paper in a journal that people actually read was published today!

Hunt, ReBecca K. and Thomas M. Lehman. 2008. Attributes of the ceratopsian dinosaur Torosaurus, and new material from the Javelina Formation (Maastrichtian) of Texas. Journal of Paleontology 82(6): 1127-1138.

Excuse me for just a moment....








































Sorry, I had to get that out of my system!

This is how I feel right now:


Symbolism anyone? Yes, Vader is this project. Its all about getting it out of your system and being able to let it go and move on to the next thing. Having this paper finished and actually published is quite the relief.

That being said, I will post a pretty picture from the paper here along with the abstract and I will discuss the paper more at length when I have had time to calm down some.

Enjoy!

ABSTRACT—A bone bed in the middle part of the Javelina Formation (Maastrichtian) in Texas yielded parts of about 37 identifiable ceratopsid dinosaur bones, mostly appendicular and limb girdle elements belonging to one juvenile and two adult individuals of Torosaurus cf. utahensis. The bone bed is a lag assemblage comprising large immobile parts of the skeletons accumulated in an abandoned stream channel. In general form and proportions the postcranial bones are similar to those in Pentaceratops sternbergi and are not as robust as those in Torosaurus latus or Triceratops horridus. A few cranial elements are preserved, including parts of a parietal, squamosal, maxilla, and two dentaries. The form of the parietal fragment is comparable to that of a more nearly complete specimen of Torosaurus cf. utahensis collected nearby at about the same stratigraphic level. The bone bed material provides a basis for the first skeletal reconstruction of this enigmatic horned dinosaur. Most characters used in diagnoses of T. utahensis and T. latus are inadequate. Only the raised bar along the squamosal/parietal suture, present in T. latus; and the midline epiparietal, absent in T. latus, may discriminate the two species.

Welcome Pachyrhinosaur lakustai!!

The name Pachyrhinosaur lakustai was finally revealed yesterday for the new Grand Prairie/Pipestone Creek ceratopsian! From the press release at LiveScience:

"A catastrophic event 72.5 million years ago left a herd of giant, horned dinosaurs buried to become fossils. Now scientists have identified the extinct creatures as a new species.

The fossils, found in Northwest Alberta, Canada, revealed a herd of so-called ceratopsian dinosaurs that perished together. The animals are characterized by a bony frill on the back of the skull ornamented with smaller horns.

Parts of at least 27 individual animals were recovered at the site.

These dinosaurs also had large bony structures above their nose and eyes, which lends them their name: Pachyrhinosaurus (thick-nosed lizard). These structures probably supported horns of keratin, said researcher Philip Currie, Canada research chair of dinosaur paleobiology at the University of Alberta, who was involved in the excavations.

The new species of Pachyrhinosaurus is closely related to Pachyrhinosaurus canadensis, which is known from younger rocks near Drumheller and Lethbridge in southern Alberta, Currie said. The newfound species is a smaller animal with many differences in the ornamental spikes and bumps on the skull.

The adults of both species have massive bosses, or protuberances, of bone in the positions where other horned dinosaurs (like Centrosaurus and Triceratops) have horns. However, juveniles of the new species resemble juveniles of Centrosaurus in having horns rather than bosses.

Northwest Alberta was not previously known for dinosaur material. In the 1970s, the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Alberta began to lead excavations and studies of the Pipestone Creek bone bed there. The naming of the new species, Pachyrhinosaur lakustai, honors Al Lakusta, a now retired science teacher in Grande Prairie, Alberta.

"The density of the Pipestone Creek bonebed is exceptional and surpasses many of Alberta's other ceratopsian bonebed sites," Currie said. "The preservation of the material is outstanding and was easy to collect. The number of bones, from all age groups, made complex investigations possible regarding behavior and growth patterns."

The site contains fossils from young and old individuals, allowing researchers to describe individual variations and growth patterns, investigate the possibility of sexual dimorphism, and hypothesize on a herding lifestyle.

With this new species, researchers will now have more data to give a better understanding of the ancient life and ecosystems in northwestern Alberta in the Cretaceous period, Currie said.

The study of the Pachyrhinosaurs is detailed in a book, "A New Horned Dinosaur from an Upper Cretaceous Bone Bed in Alberta," by Currie, Wann Langston, Jr. and Darren H. Tanke (NRC Press, 2008). [Link to buy the book here]

"Ongoing cooperation between Grande Prairie Regional College, the Royal Tyrrell Museum and the University of Alberta has uncovered many additional sites and fossils in our region," said Jack O'Toole, chair of the Pipestone Creek Dinosaur Project.

Andrew Neuman, executive director of the Royal Tyrrell Museum, explained the importance of the Pipestone Creek site. "Working on a previously unknown site that is abundant in dinosaur material shows how rich the entire province of Alberta is in paleontological resources," he said."

The book is still unavailable on Amazon.com but you can order it directly here. I can not wait to get my copy!

(pictures are from River of Death Dinosaur Centre)

Text cloud for two of my papers

I have totally ripped off this idea off from Brian over at Clastic Detritus. Check his text clouds out! Since I wrote this (I was delaying posting it, but I guess I'll stop), Chuck over at Lab Lemming and Maria of Green Gabbro have done the same, so on the band wagon I jump. These are based on recent works of mine that are in their final stages of the review process. This first one is a paper I will have in the Ceratopsid symposium book with Andy Farke.

accumulations agujaceratops alberta although animals assemblages based behavior bonebeds centrosaurine centrosaurus ceratopsids chasmosaurine data depositional differences dinosaur drought energy environments evidence floodplain formation gregarious groups herding hunt indicate individuals juvenile known lack least monodominant montana number overbank park possible present preserved provincial remains represent site social species taxa taxon

created at TagCrowd.com

This one is based on my thesis work, which I have submitted to the Journal of Paleontology. Since it is still in review I have taken the liberty to remove a few words that might give away to much. Hopefully I can tell you more about this really soon! I am not playing the suck up game as far as any of my former committee members go, as I have deleted any and all references and citations from the list.

along although bar bones broad ceratopsid chasmosaurines chasmosaurus collected compared distal dorsal elements epiparietals form formation fragment fragmentary horncore horridus identified javelina lateral length margin mariscalensis material medial midline museum parietal parts pentaceratops posterior preserved process proximal ratio referred relatively similar size species specimens squamosal sternbergi surface suture triceratops variation

created at TagCrowd.com

Update: Since posting this 3 others have followed: Kim at a"All My Faults are Stress Related" (such a great title for a blog!), Chris over at "Highly Allochthonous," and Silver Fox over at "Looking for Detachment"...check them out! :)

Triceratops cranial epi-ossifications

Fresh from the newest issue of JVP:

Ontogeny of cranial epi-ossifications in Triceratops. John R. Horner and Mark B. Goodwin. 2008. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 28(1): 134-144.

Abstract: "Historically, the scarcity of non-adult Triceratops fossils collected from Upper Cretaceous sediments of North America limited our understanding and promoted controversy with regard to the morphology, and presence or absence of cranial epi-ossifications in the widely known horned dinosaur. The recent discovery of several exceptionally well preserved juvenile and subadult Triceratops skulls and numerous juvenile, subadult, and adult cranial elements, from the Hell Creek Formation of eastern Montana, confirms the ontogeny and morphology of epi-ossifications: epinasal, epijugal, epiparietal, and episquamosal. We describe the ontogeny and timing of the fusion of each of these epi-ossifications and the rostral from a cranial growth series. Although the timing is variable, the epinasal fuses first, followed by the rostral, the epijugals, the episquamosals, and lastly by the epiparietals. Co-ossification of the epinasal, rostral, and epijugals unites several of the anterior (rostral-nasal-premaxillae) and lateral (jugal-quadratojugal) skull elements. In combination with forward directed postorbital horns and massive fan-shaped frill, cranial epi-ossifications may have enhanced visual display and species communication in Triceratops."

Abstract reproduced with the permission of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology. Picture from Hatcher, Marsh and Lull 'The Ceratopsia.'

Diceratops becomes Diceratus

In the newest issue of the Journal of Paleontology* Octavio Mateus clears up the preoccupation of the ceratopsians names Diceratops (Lull, 1905; right) and Microceratops (Bohlin, 1953).

Diceratops the ceratopsian (Lull, 1905) is preoccupied by the Hymenoptera insects (one of the larger orders of insects, comprising the sawflies, wasp, bees and ants; Foerster, 1868). He changes the genus of the ceratopsian Diceratops to Diceratus (Greek di  ‘‘two,’’ Greek ceratos ‘‘horned’’).

Microceratops the ceratopsian (Bohlin, 1953) is the junior homonym of the ichneumon wasp from Madagascar (Seyrig, 1952). This genus has been renamed Microceratus (Greek micro  ‘‘small,’’ Greek ceratos ‘‘horned’’).

Be sure to check out Octavio's entire paper!

* Mateus, Octavio. 2008. Two ornithischian dinosaurs renamed: Microceratops Bohlin 1953 and Diceratops Lull 1905. Journal of Paleontology 82(2): 423.

Ref.s

Bohlin, B. 1953. Fossil reptiles from Mongolia and Kansu. In Sino-Swedish Expedition Publications, 37:1–113.

Foerster, A. 1868. Synopsis der Familien und Gattungen der Ichneumonen. Verhandlungen des Naturhistorischen Vereins der Preussischen Rheinlande und Westfalens, 25:135–221.

Lull, R. 1905. Restoration of the horned dinosaur Diceratops. American Journal of Science, 20:420–422.

Seyrig, A. 1952. Les Ichneumonides de Madagascar. IV Ichneumonidae Cryptinae. Me´moires de l’Acade´mie Malgache, 19:1–213.