Andrew Knapp, PhD candidate from the School of Biological and Chemical Sciences and lead author of the study, said: «This resolves a long - standing and hitherto untested hypothesis concerning the origin and function of ornamental traits
in ceratopsian dinosaurs.
Because Wendiceratops is more closely related to a different group of ceratopsians than Triceratops — one that includes the recently discovered «Hellboy» dinosaur — the discovery suggests that the tall and high version of the nose horn evolved twice
in the ceratopsian family.
Not exact matches
His study, published
in the journal Cretaceous Research, highlights it as the first fossil from a
ceratopsian dinosaur identified from this period of eastern North America.
Many general discussions of
ceratopsian ornaments
in museum signage and popular literature often include examples of what they might have been for, but these tend to be rather speculative.
A previous research paper from Queen Mary found that the frill
in one
ceratopsian species, Protoceratops, may have evolved under sexual selection.
Triceratops, for example, belongs to a big group of species called
ceratopsians, many of which had frills and horns
in a dizzying variety of shapes and sizes.
As the researchers report online today
in PLOS ONE, the 6 - meter - long beast (artist's conception above) had the typical
ceratopsian features of a frilly crown behind its head and probably had horns over its eyes.
Now, a team working
in Canada's Alberta province, near the border with Montana, reports finding a 79 - million - year - old
ceratopsian they call Wendiceratops pinhornensis («Wendi» after the Alberta fossil hunter Wendy Sloboda, who discovered the site where the fossils were found, and «pinhornensis» after the name of the site locality, the Pinhorn Provincial Grazing Reserve
in Alberta).
In most dinosaur art before the 1980s,
ceratopsians dragged their bellies under legs crooked out to the sides.
But Peter Dodson, a
ceratopsian expert at the University of Pennsylvania, argues the proper pose is crook - legged, not necessarily
in the «extreme push - ups» pose of modern crocodiles, but certainly not
in the straight pillar fashion of modern rhinos either.
Universal Pictures have offered a very cool photo opportunity, recreating a small diorama of the first promotional still from the film, bringing
in a large
Ceratopsian skull for maximum wow factor!
They appear as a metallic mono -
ceratopsian skull embedded
in black rock.