Agujaceratops
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| Agujaceratops Fossil range: Late Cretaceous |
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 Life-sized bronze Agujaceratops mariscalensis
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A. mariscalensis |
Agujaceratops (meaning "Horned face from Aguja") is a newly reclassified genus of ceratopsian dinosaur. Originally known as Chasmosaurus mariscalensis and described by Lehman in 1989, it was moved to a new genus by Lucas, Sullivan and Hunt in 2006. Lehman felt the habitat Agujaceratops lived in (at least where the fossil material was found) may have been a swamp, due to the nature of the sediments. Agujaceratops lived during the Late Cretaceous (Campanian stage), around 70-83 million years ago.
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[edit] Discovery and species
In 1938, three dinosaur bone beds were excavated, and ceratopsian material was collected from Big Bend National Park by William Strain. This material was studied by Lehman some 50 years later and named Chasmosaurus mariscalensis, but at that time there was no definitive adult skull. Then, in 1991 further material was collected in Big Bend on an expedition led by Paul Sereno. Subsequent analysis resulted in the taxon being put in its own genus.
Ajugaceratops species
- A. mariscalensis.
[edit] Classification
Agujaceratops is similar to both Pentaceratops and Chasmosaurus. Its short frill suggests it probably wasn't an ancestor of Pentaceratops. It lived in what is now Texas, and was found in strata from the Aguja Formation, dating to the Campanian (Judithian) portions of the Late Cretaceous.
[edit] References
- Dodson, P. (1996). The Horned Dinosaurs. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey. ISBN 0-691-05900-4.
