Ceratops

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Ceratops
Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, 77.5  Ma
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Ceratops.png
Holotype left horncore
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade:† Ornithischia
Suborder:† Ceratopsia
Family:† Ceratopsidae
Subfamily:† Ceratopsinae
Marsh, 1888 sensu Abel, 1919
Genus:† Ceratops
Marsh, 1888
Species:
†C. montanus
Binomial name
†Ceratops montanus
Marsh, 1888
Synonyms
  • Proceratops montanus
    (Marsh, 1888) Lull, 1906
  • Triceratops montanus
    (Marsh, 1888) Ostrom & Wellnhofer, 1986

Ceratops (meaning "horn face") is a dubious genus of herbivorous ceratopsian dinosaur which lived during the Late Cretaceous. Its fossils have been found in the Judith River Formation in Montana. Although poorly known, Ceratops is important in the history of dinosaurs, since it is the type genus for which both the Ceratopsia and the Ceratopsidae have been named.

Contents

History

Illustration of the type specimen by Marsh Ceratops.jpg
Illustration of the type specimen by Marsh

The first remains referred to Ceratops — an occipital condyle and a pair of horn cores — were found by John Bell Hatcher (1861–1904) in the late summer of 1888 near the Cow Creek in Blaine County in the uppermost Judith River Formation of Montana. Hatcher was at the time employed by Professor Othniel Charles Marsh who the same year named the find as the type species Ceratops montanus. The generic name was derived from Greek κέρας, keras, "horn", and ὤψ, ops, "face". The specific name referred to Montana. Marsh originally believed the animal to be similar to Stegosaurus , but with two horns on the back of its head, a body length of twenty-five to thirty feet, horizontal plates on its back and bipedal. According to Marsh it would have "represented a very strange appearance". [1] In his illustration of the horn pair, purportedly showing them from behind, Marsh had switched their position and rotated their outside to the rear to make them point inwards. [2]

The holotype, USNM 2411, was found in a layer dating from the Campanian. It consists, apart from the occipital condyle, of two supraorbital horn cores of about twenty-two centimetres length. [2] The right horn is attached to a part of the prefrontal. Marsh later referred two squamosals to the species, specimens USNM 4802 and USNM 2415. These however are more likely centrosaurine; they have also been referred to Avaceratops . [3]

In 1906 Richard Swann Lull noted that the name Ceratops had been preoccupied by a bird, Ceratops Rafinesque 1815, but also that this had been an undescribed nomen nudum , causing the name to have been still available in 1888. He nevertheless provisionally proposed a replacement name: Proceratops. [4] This is thus a junior synonym of Ceratops.

Already in the early twentieth century new finds made it increasingly difficult to distinguish the limited remains of Ceratops from several other related forms. Today, Ceratops is considered a nomen dubium. [5] However, from time to time claims are made about discoveries that, also taking into regard their provenance, might have a provable connection with the Ceratops holotype.

In 1995, David Trexler and F.G. Sweeney noted that complete material from a bonebed that had been found in Montana could enable Ceratops to be reexamined. The site, known as the Mansfield Bonebed, belongs to the same stratigraphic level as the one that yielded the original Ceratops remains. It had initially been interpreted as containing Styracosaurus , but what earlier authors considered the frill spikes of Styracosaurus turned out to be chasmosaurine orbital horns. Trexler and Sweeney pointed out that these horns closely resembled those of Ceratops, and could allow the genus to be rescued as a valid name. [6] The ceratopsids in the bonebed were later referred to the genus Albertaceratops , and later re-classified in their own genus, Medusaceratops . [7]

In 1999, Paul Penkalski and Peter Dodson concluded that Ceratops, despite being a nomen dubium because the material is too meager, appeared closely related to Avaceratops which may even be a juvenile Ceratops; there is not enough material to prove it. [8]

Later species

In 1889 Marsh named a second species of Ceratops: Ceratops horridus. [9] This would almost immediately in a subsequent article be renamed into Triceratops horridus. Ceratops horridus is thus the type species of Triceratops. In the same article Marsh renamed Bison alticornis, his misidentification of ceratopsid material for a giant bovid, into Ceratops alticornis. [10] In 1890 Marsh renamed Hadrosaurus paucidens into Ceratops paucidens; [11] but the original assessment of Hatcher that this represented hadrosaurid material is probably correct. [2]

In 1905 Hatcher renamed three Monoclonius species into Ceratops species: Monoclonius recurvicornis Cope 1889 became Ceratops recurvicornis; Monoclonius belli Lambe 1902 was made Ceratops belli and Monoclonius canadensis Lambe 1902 was renamed Ceratops canadensis. [12] C. canadensis later was made the separate genus Eoceratops , and C. belli was made the separate genus Chasmosaurus ; in 1925 William King Gregory concluded that Ceratops and Chasmosaurus were identical, [13] but this was rejected by most researchers.

In 2005, remarkably well preserved cranial and postcranial elements of a Judithian ceratopsian were discovered in Fergus County, Montana. Nicknamed "Judith", preliminary examination suggested a close affinity with C. montanus. The locality has been determined to be on or in close proximity to the stratigraphic layer of C. montanus, and not too many miles away. [14] In 2016, the new animal was named Spiclypeus , and the authors stated that it may be identical to Ceratops, which they considered a nomen dubium, or a growth stage of Albertaceratops. [15]

Species list

The naming history can be summarised in a species list.

Classification

Ceratops was placed by Marsh in the Ceratopsidae in 1888. [1] It thus belonged to the Ceratopsia, a group of herbivorous dinosaurs with parrot-like beaks which thrived in North America and Asia during the Late Cretaceous Period, which ended roughly 66 million years ago. In 1919 the group Ceratopsinae was named by Othenio Lothar Franz Anton Louis Abel, [16] but this concept is problematic: Paul Sereno has defined it as equivalent to the Chasmosaurinae but other researchers limit it to Ceratops itself as its direct relationships are uncertain.

Diet

Ceratops, like all ceratopsians, was a herbivore biting off plant material with its beak and processing it with its tooth batteries.

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Triceratops</i> Genus of ceratopsid dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous

Triceratops is a genus of chasmosaurine ceratopsian dinosaur that lived during the late Maastrichtian age of the Late Cretaceous period, about 68 to 66 million years ago in what is now western North America. It was one of the last-known non-avian dinosaurs and lived until the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event 66 million years ago. The name Triceratops, which literally means 'three-horned face', is derived from the Greek words trí- meaning 'three', kéras meaning 'horn', and ṓps meaning 'face'.

<i>Trachodon</i> Dubious extinct genus of dinosaurs

Trachodon is a dubious genus of hadrosaurid dinosaur based on teeth from the Campanian-age Upper Cretaceous Judith River Formation of Montana, U.S. It is a historically important genus with a convoluted taxonomy that has been all but abandoned by modern dinosaur paleontologists.

<i>Chasmosaurus</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Chasmosaurus is a genus of ceratopsid dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Period in North America. Its given name means 'opening lizard', referring to the large openings (fenestrae) in its frill. With a length of 4.3–4.8 metres (14.1–15.7 ft) and a weight of 1.5–2 tonnes —or anywhere from 2,200 to nearly 5,000 lbs., give or take—Chasmosaurus was of a slightly smaller to ‘average’ size, especially when compared to larger ceratopsians. The Chasmosaurs were similar, in overall build and weight, to a white rhinoceros or an Indian rhinoceros; just like rhinos, and all other ceratopsians, they were purely herbivorous, needing to consume around 54 kilograms, or 120 lbs., of plant matter each day.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ceratopsia</span> Extinct suborder of Dinosaurs

Ceratopsia or Ceratopia is a group of herbivorous, beaked dinosaurs that thrived in what are now North America, Europe, and Asia, during the Cretaceous Period, although ancestral forms lived earlier, in the Jurassic. The earliest known ceratopsian, Yinlong downsi, lived between 161.2 and 155.7 million years ago. The last ceratopsian species, Triceratops prorsus, became extinct during the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, 66 million years ago.

<i>Nedoceratops</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Nedoceratops is a controversial genus of ceratopsid dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous period Lance Formation of North America. It is known only from a single skull discovered in Wyoming. Its status is the subject of ongoing debate among paleontologists: some authors consider Nedoceratops a valid, distinct taxon, while others consider it to be an unusual specimen of Triceratops.

<i>Styracosaurus</i> Ceratopsian dinosaur genus from the Cretaceous Period

Styracosaurus is a genus of herbivorous ceratopsian dinosaur from the Cretaceous Period, about 75.5 to 74.5 million years ago. It had four to six long parietal spikes extending from its neck frill, a smaller jugal horn on each of its cheeks, and a single horn protruding from its nose, which may have been up to 60 centimeters long and 15 centimeters wide. The function or functions of the horns and frills have been debated for many years.

<i>Pachyrhinosaurus</i> Ceratopsid dinosaur genus from Late Cretaceous US and Canada

Pachyrhinosaurus is an extinct genus of centrosaurine ceratopsid dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous period of North America. The first examples were discovered by Charles M. Sternberg in Alberta, Canada, in 1946, and named in 1950. Over a dozen partial skulls and a large assortment of other fossils from various species have been found in Alberta and Alaska. A great number were not available for study until the 1980s, resulting in a relatively recent increase of interest in Pachyrhinosaurus.

<i>Centrosaurus</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Centrosaurus is a genus of centrosaurine ceratopsian dinosaur from Campanian age of Late Cretaceous Canada. Their remains have been found in the Dinosaur Park Formation, dating from 76.5 to 75.5 million years ago.

<i>Agathaumas</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Agathaumas is a dubious genus of a large ceratopsid dinosaur that lived in Wyoming during the Late Cretaceous. The name comes from Ancient Greek: αγαν - 'much' and θαυμα - 'wonder'. It is estimated to have been 15 metres (49 ft) long and weighed 17.5 tonnes, and was seen as the largest land animal known at the time of its discovery.

<i>Anchiceratops</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Anchiceratops is an extinct genus of chasmosaurine ceratopsid dinosaur that lived approximately 72 to 71 million years ago during the latter part of the Cretaceous Period in what is now Alberta, Canada. Anchiceratops was a medium-sized, heavily built, ground-dwelling, quadrupedal herbivore that could grow up to an estimated 4.3 metres (14 ft) long. Its skull featured two long brow horns and a short horn on the nose. The skull frill was elongated and rectangular, its edges adorned by coarse triangular projections. About a dozen skulls of the genus have been found.

<i>Monoclonius</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Monoclonius is an extinct genus of herbivorous ceratopsian dinosaur found in the Late Cretaceous layers of the Judith River Formation in Montana, United States, and the uppermost rock layers of the Dinosaur Park Formation in Alberta, Canada dated to between 75 and 74.6 million years ago.

Avaceratops is a genus of small herbivorous ceratopsian dinosaurs which lived during the late Campanian during the Late Cretaceous Period in what are now the Northwest United States. Most fossils come from the Judith River Formation.

<i>Deinodon</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Deinodon is a dubious tyrannosaurid dinosaur genus containing a single species, Deinodon horridus. D. horridus is known only from a set of teeth found in the Late Cretaceous Judith River Formation of Montana and named by paleontologist Joseph Leidy in 1856. These were the first tyrannosaurid remains to be described and had been collected by Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden. The teeth of Deinodon were slightly heterodont, and the holotype of Aublysodon can probably be assigned to Deinodon.

<i>Brachyceratops</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Brachyceratops is a dubious genus of ceratopsian dinosaur known only from partial juvenile specimens dating to the late Cretaceous Period of Montana, United States.

Dysganus (dis-GANN-us) is a dubious genus of ceratopsian dinosaur from the Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous. The fossil teeth referred to Dysganus were first collected by Charles Sternberg from the Cretaceous Judith River Formation of Montana and later described by Edward Drinker Cope. All of the species are now seen as dubious Ceratopsians, though referred material from tyrannosaurids and hadrosaurids were found in New Mexico.

<i>Medusaceratops</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Medusaceratops is an extinct genus of centrosaurine ceratopsian dinosaur known from the Late Cretaceous Judith River Formation of Montana, northern United States. It contains a single species, Medusaceratops lokii.

<i>Edmontosaurus annectens</i> Hadrosaurid species from the Late Cretaceous Period

Edmontosaurus annectens, often colloquially and historically known as the Anatosaurus, is a species of flat-headed saurolophine hadrosaurid dinosaur from the late Maastrichtian age at the very end of the Cretaceous period, in what is now western North America. Remains of E. annectens have been preserved in the Frenchman, Hell Creek, and Lance Formations. All of these formations are dated to the late Maastrichtian age of the Late Cretaceous period, which represents the last three million years before the extinction of the dinosaurs. E. annectens is also found in the Laramie Formation and magnetostratigraphy suggests an age of 69-68 Ma for the Laramie Formation. Edmontosaurus annectens is known from numerous specimens, including at least twenty partial to complete skulls, discovered in the U.S. states of Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota, Wyoming, and Colorado, as well as the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It had an extremely long and low skull and was quite a large animal, growing up to approximately 12 metres (39 ft) in length and 5.6 metric tons in average asymptotic body mass, although it could have been even larger. E. annectens exhibits one of the most striking examples of the "duckbill" snout that is common to hadrosaurs. It has a long taxonomic history and specimens have at times been classified as Diclonius, Trachodon, Hadrosaurus, Claosaurus, Thespesius, Anatosaurus, and Anatotitan before all being grouped together in Edmontosaurus

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Triceratopsini</span> Extinct tribe of dinosaurs

Triceratopsini is a tribe of herbivorous chasmosaurine dinosaurs that lived between the late Campanian to the late Maastrichtian stages of the Cretaceous period, between 74.73 and 66 million years ago. Fossils of these animals have been found in western North America, in particular West Canada, Western and Midwestern United States, which was once part of the ancient continent of Laramidia. The tribe was named by Nicholas R. Longrich in 2011 for the description of Titanoceratops, which he defined as "all species closer to Triceratops horridus than to Anchiceratops ornatus or Arrhinoceratops brachyops". Triceratopsins were the largest of the chasmosaurines; suggesting that gigantism had evolved in the Ceratopsidae once. In addition there is an evolutionary trend in the solidification of the frills, the most extreme being in Triceratops.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timeline of ceratopsian research</span>

This timeline of ceratopsian research is a chronological listing of events in the history of paleontology focused on the ceratopsians, a group of herbivorous marginocephalian dinosaurs that evolved parrot-like beaks, bony frills, and, later, spectacular horns. The first scientifically documented ceratopsian fossils were described by Edward Drinker Cope starting in the 1870s; however, the remains were poorly preserved and their true nature was not recognized. Over the next several decades, Cope named several such genera and species. Cope's hated rival, Othniel Charles Marsh, also described ceratopsian remains. In 1887, Marsh mistook a Triceratops horn for one belonging to a new species of prehistoric Bison. Marsh also named the eponymous genus Ceratops in 1888. The next year, he named the most famous ceratopsian, Triceratops horridus. It was the discovery of Triceratops that illuminated the ceratopsian body plan, and he formally named the Ceratopsia in 1890.

References

  1. 1 2 Marsh, O.C. (1888). "A new family of horned Dinosauria, from the Cretaceous" (PDF). The American Journal of Science. Series 3. 36 (216): 477–478. Bibcode:1888AmJS...36..477M. doi:10.2475/ajs.s3-36.216.477. S2CID   130243398.
  2. 1 2 3 J.B. Hatcher, O.C. Marsh, and R.S. Lull, 1907 The Ceratopsia. Monographs of the United States Geological Survey 49 pp 198
  3. ↑ Penkalski, P.G., 1993, "The morphology of Avaceratops lammersi, a primitive ceratopsid from the Campanian of Montana", Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology13(3, supplement): 52A
  4. ↑ Lull, R.S. (1906). "A new name for the dinosaurian genus Ceratops". The American Journal of Science. Series 4. 21 (122): 144. Bibcode:1906AmJS...21..144L. doi:10.2475/ajs.s4-21.122.144.
  5. ↑ P. Dodson and P. J. Currie, 1990, "Neoceratopsia". In: D.B. Weishampel, H. Osmolska, and P. Dodson (eds.), The Dinosauria. First Edition. University of California Press, Berkeley pp 593-618
  6. ↑ Trexler, D. and Sweeney, F.G. (1995). "Preliminary work on a recently discovered ceratopsian (Dinosauria: Ceratopsidae) bonebed from the Judith River Formation of Montana suggests the remains are of Ceratops montanus Marsh." Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 15(3, Suppl.): 57A.
  7. ↑ Ryan, Michael J.; Russell, Anthony P., and Hartman, Scott. (2010). "A New Chasmosaurine Ceratopsid from the Judith River Formation, Montana", In: Michael J. Ryan, Brenda J. Chinnery-Allgeier, and David A. Eberth (eds), New Perspectives on Horned Dinosaurs: The Royal Tyrrell Museum Ceratopsian Symposium, Indiana University Press, 656 pp. ISBN   0-253-35358-0.
  8. ↑ Penkalski, P; Dodson, P (1999). "The morphology and systematics of Avaceratops, a primitive horned dinosaur from the Judith River Formation (Late Campanian) of Montana, with the description of a second skull". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 19 (4): 692–711. Bibcode:1999JVPal..19..692P. doi:10.1080/02724634.1999.10011182.
  9. ↑ Marsh, O.C. (1889). "Notice of new American Dinosauria". American Journal of Science. 37 (220): 331–336. Bibcode:1889AmJS...37..331M. doi:10.2475/ajs.s3-37.220.331. S2CID   131729220.
  10. ↑ Marsh, O.C. (1889). "Notice of gigantic horned Dinosauria from the Cretaceous". American Journal of Science. 38 (224): 173–175. Bibcode:1889AmJS...38..173M. doi:10.2475/ajs.s3-38.224.173. S2CID   131187857.
  11. ↑ Marsh, O.C. (1890). "Description of new dinosaurian reptiles". The American Journal of Science. Series 3. 39 (229): 81–86. Bibcode:1890AmJS...39...81M. doi:10.2475/ajs.s3-39.229.81. S2CID   131403178.
  12. ↑ Stanton, T.W.; Hatcher, J.B. (1905). "Geology and paleontology of the Judith River Beds". Journal of Geology. 257 (6): 1–174. Bibcode:1907JG.....15..601S. doi:10.1086/621438.
  13. ↑ Gregory, W.K.; Mook, C.C. (1925). "On Protoceratops, a primitive ceratopsian dinosaur from the Lower Cretaceous of Mongolia". American Museum Novitates (156): 1–9.
  14. ↑ "Judith the Dinosaur Archived 2021-01-19 at the Wayback Machine ". Accessed 17-AUG-2013.
  15. ↑ Mallon, Jordan C.; Ott, Christopher J.; Larson, Peter L.; Iuliano, Edward M.; Evans, David C.; Evans, Alistair R. (2016). "Spiclypeus shipporum gen. et sp. nov., a Boldly Audacious New Chasmosaurine Ceratopsid (Dinosauria: Ornithischia) from the Judith River Formation (Upper Cretaceous: Campanian) of Montana, USA". PLOS ONE. 11 (5): e0154218. Bibcode:2016PLoSO..1154218M. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0154218 . PMC   4871577 . PMID   27191389.
  16. ↑ Abel, O.L.F.A.L., 1919, Die Stämme der Wirbeltiere, Berlin und Leipzig : W. de Gruyter, 914 pp
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