Triceratops on EARTH Magazine

Horned dinosaur find a first for eastern North America

Mon, 17 Jul 2017 08:12:15 -0400

A ceratopsid tooth found recently in Mississippi. Credit: George Phillips, MDWFP Museum of Natural Science.

Fossils of horned dinosaurs called ceratopsids, the group that includes Triceratops, are usually found in either western North America or Asia. But the discovery of a single ceratopsid tooth in Mississippi, reported in a new study in PeerJ, hints that this group spread into new territory at the tail end of the Mesozoic Era — just prior to going extinct. Migrating from Montana — or elsewhere where ceratopsid fossils are found in abundance — to Mississippi is straightforward today, but during the Late Cretaceous, North America was split by the Western Interior Seaway into two landmasses, Laramidia to the west and Appalachia to the east. This division created distinct dinosaur communities on either side of the continent, with ceratopsids notably cut off from the east.

Horned dinosaur find a first for eastern North America

Tue, 23 May 2017 08:16:00 -0400

The ceratopsid tooth found recently in Mississippi is held next to the lower left law of a Triceratops from Montana. Credit: Jeremy Copley, Mississippi Museum of Natural Science

New species of uniquely horned dinosaur identified

Tue, 13 Sep 2016 14:11:37 -0400

Jordan Mallon stands with the reconstructed skull of Spiclypeus shipporum, a newly described genus and species of horned dinosaur. Credit: ©Canadian Museum of Nature/Martin Lipman.

The Triceratops family tree just got a little spikier. A decade ago, a retired nuclear physicist uncovered the large skull, legs, hips and backbone of a dinosaur on his land near Winifred, Mont. Now, the remains have been identified in a new study as a new member of the ceratopsid family, dubbed Spiclypeus shipporum, meaning “spiked shield.”

Triceratops relative 'Wendi' sported a fantastic frill

Tue, 20 Oct 2015 12:36:02 -0400

An artist's drawing of the spectacularly adorned Wendiceratops. Credit: Danielle Dufault.

The discovery of a 79-million-year-old frilled and horned relative of Triceratops is shedding light on the early evolution of the ceratopsid’s distinctive look. The new specimen, discovered in a quarry in southern Alberta, Canada, and described recently in PLOS ONE, was named Wendiceratops pinhornensis after the famed fossil hunter Wendy Sloboda of the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, who discovered the site in 2010.

Gender equity in dino bones

Wed, 02 Sep 2015 11:42:44 -0400

A new study of 29 Protoceratops specimens suggests that males and females cannot be distinguished based on their skulls. Credit: Karen, CC BY 2.0.

Modern birds like cardinals and peacocks offer some of the most dramatic examples of sexual dimorphism on Earth, with males and females varying in size and/or displaying different plumage, among other differences. But whether the two sexes of birds’ dinosaur ancestors also possessed different physical characteristics has long been debated. Now, in a new study, scientists using state-of-the-art measuring techniques to look at Protoceratops — a frilled, horned relative of Triceratops that’s found abundantly in the fossil record — are questioning past notions about whether the sex of specimens can be distinguished based on their fossils.