News in Brief: Dinosaur had impressive schnoz
Fossils found in Utah reveal geographic segregation of horned species
Web edition: July 17, 2013
Fossils found in Utah reveal geographic segregation of horned species
By Erin Wayman
Web edition: July 17, 2013
Hook-Nosed Dino
The recently discovered Nasutoceratops titusi was a big-nosed horned dinosaur that lived 76 million years ago in what is now Utah. At the time, the region was forested, as this artist's reconstruction shows.
Credit: ? Ra?l Mart?n
A newly discovered dinosaur species was the Cyrano de Bergerac of its time. The beast, a horned dinosaur like Triceratops, had an especially large snout, scientists report July 17 in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
Compared with its relatives, Nasutoceratops titusi had a large snout, a simple bony frill and long, curved horns.
Credit: ? Rob Gaston
First unearthed in 2006 in Utah, the big-nosed Nasutoceratops titusi also had unusually long, curved horns that grew about a meter long and a simple bony frill behind its head that lacked the fancy hooks or spikes found in some other horned species. These features indicate that N. titusi belonged to a previously unknown group of horned dinosaurs, say Scott Sampson of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and colleagues.
N. titusi lived roughly 76 million years ago when Utah was part of an isolated landmass called Laramidia. The species is the first horned dino of its age found in southern Laramidia and was part of a separate lineage from the horned dinosaurs living to the north, in Alaska and Canada, the researchers say. The new find supports the idea that during that time northern and southern Laramidia were home to non-overlapping sets of dinosaur species.
Citations
S.D. Sampson et al. A remarkable short-snouted horned dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous (Late Campanian) of southern Laramidia. Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Published online July 17, 2013. doi:10.1098/rspb.2013.1186. [Go to]
Suggested Reading
D. Powell. Triceratops reigns alone again. Science News. Vol. 181, April 21, 2012, p. 14. [Go to]
S. Milius. New dinosaur species is titanic. Science News. Vol. 179, April 9, 2011, p. 10. [Go to]
S. Perkins. Triceratops may have been headbangers. Science News Online, January 27, 2009. [Go to]
Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/351663/title/News_in_Brief_Dinosaur_had_impressive_schnoz
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