An international team of researchers from different institutions has identified a new species of ceratopsid – a family of disonaurs recognizable by the horns on the eyes and on the snout, like the triceratops – that inhabited what is now southern Utah , in the USA, in the Cretaceous, about 77 million years ago.
The remains of the dinosaur, called Machairoceratops cronusi , were found in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and present certain peculiarities that have aroused great interest among paleontologists. In an essay published in the journal PLOS ONE , its discoverers point out that it could have been between six and eight meters long .
Its weight would be around two tons and, like other of these large herbivores, it had a mouth structure similar to the beak of a parrot , a prominent snout and a striking ruff. However, what makes the Machairoceratops unique are the two large curved bony bumps that started from the back of its head. These pointed downward and were part of the natural armor that protected his neck.
Scientists still do not know their function, but their presence suggests that these dinosaurs evolved differently from other ceratopsids whose fossils have been found in northern Laramidia – at the end of the Cretaceous, North America was divided by a body of water in two large regions, Laramidia, to the west, and Appalachia, to the east – while Machairoceratops appeared to the south of it. In his opinion, this suggests that the two were somehow separate, leading the species to develop different adaptations.
Image: Mark Witton / Ohio University
