Move over Triceratops, there’s a new horn-faced dinosaur in town.
Researchers announced the fossil of an herbivore dinosaur with one of the largest, most ornate “frills” on its skull and two blade-like horns protruding from it, in the scientific journal PeerJ.
Those features inspired its name, Lokiceratops rangiformis, which means “Loki’s horned face that looks like a caribou.” Lokiceratops appeared at least 12 million years earlier than its famous cousin Triceratops and at 22 feet long and 11,000 pounds, was the largest horned dinosaur of its time.
As cool as “Loki’s” name, appearance and relationship to Triceratops is (and the authors do, in fact, acknowledge that coolness) the bigger picture may prove even more fascinating.
The new fossil, excavated in northern Montana just a few miles from the U.S.-Canada border, represents just one data point of the biggest collective analysis of horned dinosaurs ever conducted.
Collaborations between the National Science ...
