Amazing Horned Dinosaurs Unearthed on 'Lost Continent'

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Another two additions to the ceratopsian family discovered in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, meet Utahceratops gettyi and Kosmoceratops richardsoni.


Utahceratops gettyi (Top), Kosmoceratops richardsoni (Bottom)

Probably the most notable feature of Kosmoceratops is that it possesses a total of 15 horns making it one of the the most ornate-headed dinosaurs ever found, whereas for Utahceratops most ususual feature is short and blunt eye horns that project to the side rather than upward, much more like the horns of modern bison than ceratopsians.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/09/100922121943.htm

Two remarkable new species of horned dinosaurs have been found in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, southern Utah. The giant plant-eaters were inhabitants of the "lost continent" of Laramidia, formed when a shallow sea flooded the central region of North America, isolating the eastern and western portions of the continent for millions of years during the Late Cretaceous Period.

The bigger of the two new dinosaurs, with a skull 2.3 meters (about 7 feet) long, is Utahceratops gettyi (U-tah-SARA-tops get-EE-i). The first part of the name combines the state of origin with ceratops, Greek for "horned face." The second part of the name honors Mike Getty, paleontology collections manager at the Utah Museum of Natural History and the discoverer of this animal. In addition to a large horn over the nose, Utahceratops has short and blunt eye horns that project strongly to the side rather than upward, much more like the horns of modern bison than those of Triceratops or other ceratopsians. Mark Loewen, one of the authors on the paper, likened Utahceratops to "a giant rhino with a ridiculously supersized head."

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Utahceratops and Kosmoceratops are part of a recent spate of ceratopsian dinosaur discoveries. Andrew Farke, another of the paper's authors, stated, "The past year has been a remarkable one for horned dinosaurs, with several new species named. The new Utah creatures are the icing on the cake, showing anatomy even more bizarre than typically expected for a group of animals known for its weird skulls."