Zuniceratops

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Zuniceratops
Temporal range: Late Cretaceous (TuronianConiacian) 90.9–88.6  Ma
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ZuniceratopsArizona.jpg
Reconstructed skeleton
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: Ornithischia
Clade: Ceratopsia
Parvorder: Coronosauria
Superfamily: Ceratopsoidea
Genus: Zuniceratops
Wolfe & Kirkland, 1998
Species:
Z. christopheri
Binomial name
Zuniceratops christopheri
Wolfe & Kirkland, 1998

Zuniceratops ('Zuni-horned face') is a genus of ceratopsian dinosaurs that lived during the Turonian stage of the Late Cretaceous in what is now New Mexico, United States. Only a single species is known, Zuniceratops christopheri.

Contents

History of discovery

Reconstructed skull Zuniceratops christopheri 1 salt lake city.jpg
Reconstructed skull

Zuniceratops was discovered in 1996, by eight-year-old Christopher James Wolfe, son of paleontologist Douglas G. Wolfe, in the Moreno Hill Formation in west-central New Mexico where one skull and the bones from several individuals have been found. [2] This discovery of Zuniceratops bonebed has been suggested as one of the evidence for the claim that grouping behavior could be a synapomorphic trait for ceratopsians. [3] In 2001, a bone believed to be a squamosal has since been found to be an ischium of a Nothronychus . [4]

The holotype specimen, MSM P2101, is either a juvenile or a subadult, [5] while other specimens like MSM P2101 and MSM P3812 belong to adults. [6] The skull is long and low with no nasal horn, but bears a well-developed pair of brow horns that are similar to those of chasmosaurs and primitive centrosaurs, showing that brow horns are plesiomorphic traits. [5]

Description

Size comparison with human Zuniceratops size.png
Size comparison with human

Zuniceratops was a relatively small ceratopsian, measuring about 2.2 meters (7.2 ft) long and weighing around 175 kilograms (386 lb). [7] The basal skull length is estimated up to 40 centimetres (1.3 ft). [6] The partial proximal parietal is shown to have an inverted "T" shape, as in Protoceratops . [5] Although the first specimen discovered had single-rooted teeth (unusual for ceratopsians), larger fossils had double-rooted teeth, showing that the teeth became double-rooted with age and that it is a plesiomorphic trait. [5]

Classification

Life restoration Zuniceratops BW.jpg
Life restoration

Zuniceratops is an example of the evolutionary transition between early ceratopsians and the later, larger ceratopsids that had very large horns and frills, supporting the theory that the lineage of ceratopsian dinosaurs may have been North American in origin. [2] Re-examinations of Turanoceratops and Zuniceratops, which are known as two critical ceratopsian taxa regarding the evolutionary history of ceratopsids, showed that the origin of ceratopsids is unrelated to, and older than the fossil record of Protoceratops and relatives. [8] [5]

Phylogenetic analysis reveal that Zuniceratops is a non-ceratopsid neoceratopisan, closely related to Turanoceratops : [9]

Coronosauria

Paleoenvironment

Specimens of Zuniceratops are known from the Moreno Hill Formation which documents a time of tectonic upheaval, volcanic activities, humid paleoclimate, and North American coastal margin shifts. [1] Other dinosaurs fossils recovered from this formation are Suskityrannus , Nothronychus , Jeyawati , and undescribed ankylosaur remains. [10] Three groups of turtle fossils have been reported: a baenid Edowa, a helochelydrid Naomichelys and an indeterminate trionychid. [11] Other vertebrate fossils include crocodyliform teeth, amiid teeth and gar scales. [2] [11]

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Protoceratops</i> Genus of reptiles (fossil)

Protoceratops is a genus of small protoceratopsid dinosaurs that lived in Asia during the Late Cretaceous, around 75 to 71 million years ago. The genus Protoceratops includes two species: P. andrewsi and the larger P. hellenikorhinus. The former was described in 1923 with fossils from the Mongolian Djadokhta Formation, and the latter in 2001 with fossils from the Chinese Bayan Mandahu Formation. Protoceratops was initially believed to be an ancestor of ankylosaurians and larger ceratopsians, such as Triceratops and relatives, until the discoveries of other protoceratopsids. Populations of P. andrewsi may have evolved into Bagaceratops through anagenesis.

<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>Styracosaurus</i> Genus of ceratopsian dinosaurs

Styracosaurus is an extinct genus of herbivorous ceratopsian dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of North America. 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>Achelousaurus</i> Genus of ceratopsid dinosaur from North America

Achelousaurus is a genus of centrosaurine ceratopsid dinosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous Period of what is now North America, about 74.2 million years ago. The first fossils of Achelousaurus were collected in Montana in 1987, by a team led by Jack Horner, with more finds made in 1989. In 1994, Achelousaurus horneri was described and named by Scott D. Sampson; the generic name means "Achelous lizard", in reference to the Greek deity Achelous, and the specific name refers to Horner. The genus is known from a few specimens consisting mainly of skull material from individuals, ranging from juveniles to adults.

<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>Nothronychus</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Nothronychus is a genus of therizinosaurid theropod dinosaurs that lived in North America during the Late Cretaceous period from 99.6 to 89.3 million years ago. The type species, Nothronychus mckinleyi, was described by James Kirkland and Douglas G. Wolfe in 2001. It was recovered near New Mexico's border with Arizona, in an area known as the Zuni Basin, from rocks assigned to the Moreno Hill Formation, dating to the Turonian stage of the Late Cretaceous. A second specimen, described in 2009 as a second species, Nothronychus graffami, was found in the Tropic Shale of Utah, dating between one million and a half million years older than N. mckinleyi.

<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>Turanoceratops</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Turanoceratops is a genus of herbivorous ceratopsian dinosaur from the late Cretaceous Bissekty Formation of Uzbekistan. The fossils dated from the mid-late Turonian stage, roughly 90 million years ago. The skull bore a pair of long brow horns like those seen in the Ceratopsidae, although Turanoceratops appears to have been transitional between earlier ceratopsians and ceratopsids, and not a ceratopsid itself.

<i>Prenoceratops</i> Genus of reptiles (fossil)

Prenoceratops, is a genus of herbivorous ceratopsian dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Period. It was a relatively small dinosaur, reaching 1.3 m (4.3 ft) in length and 20 kg (44 lb) in body mass. Its fossils have been found in the upper Two Medicine Formation in the present-day U.S. state of Montana, in Campanian age rock layers that have been dated to 74.3 million years ago. Fossils were also found in the Oldman Formation in the modern day Canadian province of Alberta, dating to around 77 million years ago.

James Ian Kirkland is an American paleontologist and geologist. He has worked with dinosaur remains from the south west United States of America and Mexico and has been responsible for discovering new and important genera. He named Animantarx, Cedarpelta, Eohadrosaurus, Jeyawati, Gastonia, Mymoorapelta, Nedcolbertia, Utahraptor, Zuniceratops, Europelta and Diabloceratops. At the same site where he found Gastonia and Utahraptor, Kirkland has also excavated fossils of the therizinosaur Falcarius.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wahweap Formation</span> Geologic formation in the United States

The Wahweap Formation of the Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument is a geological formation in southern Utah and northern Arizona, around the Lake Powell region, whose strata date back to the Late Cretaceous. Dinosaur remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from the formation.

The Moreno Hill Formation is a geological formation in western New Mexico whose strata were deposited in the Late Cretaceous. Dinosaur remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from the formation. The age of the formation is dated between approximately 90.9 to 88.6 million years ago based on detrital zircons.

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

Sinoceratops is an extinct genus of ceratopsian dinosaur that lived from 73.5 to 66 million years ago during the latter part of the Cretaceous Period in what is now Shandong province in China. It was named in 2010 by Xu Xing et al. for three skulls from Zhucheng, China. The name of its type species Sinoceratops zhuchengensis means "Chinese horned face from Zhucheng", after the location of its discovery.

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

Nasutoceratops is genus of ceratopsid dinosaur that lived in North America during the Late Cretaceous period, about 76.0–75.5 million years ago. The first known specimens were discovered in Utah in the Kaiparowits Formation of the Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument (GSENM) from 2006 onwards, including a subadult skull with a partial postcranial skeleton and rare skin impressions and two other partial skulls. In 2013, the subadult was made the holotype of the new genus and species Nasutoceratops titusi; the generic name means "large-nosed horned face", and the specific name honors the paleotologist Alan L. Titus for his work at the GSENM. The dinosaur was noted for its large nose in news reports, and later featured in Jurassic World films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baenidae</span> Extinct family of turtles

Baenidae is an extinct family of paracryptodiran turtles known from the Early Cretaceous to Eocene of North America. While during the Early Cretaceous they are found across North America, during the Late Cretaceous they are only found in Laramidia, having disappeared from Appalachia. The majority of lineages survived the K-Pg Extinction, but the family was extinct by the latest Eocene. The name of the type genus, Baena, appears to be of Native American origin. They are primarily found in freshwater deposits, and are considered to be aquatic, with a largely generalist habit.

Melvius is a genus of vidalamiin amiid fish from the Late Cretaceous. The type species, Melvius thomasi, was described by Bryant in 1987 from Hell Creek Formation. A second species Melvius chauliodous, was named and described by Hall and Wolburg in 1989 from Kirtland Formation, and it is now considered to be one of the index taxa of the Kirtlandian land-vertebrate age. Both species of Melvius were very large at its size. A vertebral remain of M. thomasi would belongs to fish with standard length of 161 cm (5.28 ft), and there are some specimens exceeds height of that vertebra. Total length of this species would be at least 193–205 cm (6.33–6.73 ft). However, M. thomasi would be a “dwarf” compared to M. chauliodous, a specimen of M. chauliodous with abdominal centra which is 6.57 cm (2.59 in) wide would indicate standard length over 2 m (6.6 ft), and there is even larger abdominal centra which is 7.3 cm (2.9 in) wide.

<i>Suskityrannus</i> Extinct genus of tyrannosaur

Suskityrannus is a genus of small tyrannosauroid theropod from the Late Cretaceous in southern Laramidia. It contains a single species, Suskityrannus hazelae, and the type specimen was found in the Turonian-age Moreno Hill Formation of the Zuni Basin in western New Mexico.

<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

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  2. 1 2 3 Wolfe, D.G; Kirkland, J.I. (1998). "Zuniceratops christopheri n. gen. & n. sp., a ceratopsian dinosaur from the Moreno Hill Formation (Cretaceous, Turonian) of west-central New Mexico". New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, Bulletin. 14: 303–317.
  3. Scott, S.H.W.; Ryan, M.J.; Evans, D.C. (2022). "Postcranial description of Wendiceratops pinhornensis and a taphonomic analysis of the oldest monodominant ceratopsid bonebed". The Anatomical Record. 306 (7): 1824–1841. doi:10.1002/ar.25045. PMID   36001492. S2CID   251766450.
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