WASHINGTON: About 78 million years in the past in what was then a subtropical coastal plain – now the badlands of northern Montana – lived a four-legged plant-eating dinosaur constructed a bit like a rhinoceros with a fabulously ornate set of horns on its head.
This newly recognized dinosaur, referred to as Lokiceratops rangiformis, was about 6.7m lengthy, weighed round 5.5 tons and used a strong beak on the entrance of its mouth to browse on low-growing vegetation equivalent to ferns and flowering crops, scientists stated on Thursday (Jun 20).
Lokiceratops had two curving horns greater than 40cm lengthy above its eyes, small horns on its cheeks, and blades and spikes alongside its prolonged head protect.
On this frill, it had a minimum of 20 horns together with an asymmetrical pair of curved blade-shaped ones, every about 61cm lengthy. These are the biggest frill horns ever noticed on a dinosaur.
These blade-like horns, evocative of weaponry wielded by the trickster god Loki in Norse mythology, helped encourage its scientific title, which additionally recognises the everlasting residence of the fossils on the Museum of Evolution in Denmark.
The title means “Loki’s horned face” and “shaped like a caribou”, referring to the truth that its frill shows horns of various lengths on both sides, like caribou antlers.
It was considered one of quite a few species of horned dinosaurs, referred to as ceratopsians, that roamed western North America throughout the Cretaceous Interval at a time when a big inland sea cut up the continent in half.
Lokiceratops pushes the envelope on weird headgear for ceratopsians, in accordance with palaeontologist Joe Sertich of the Smithsonian Tropical Analysis Institute and Colorado State College, co-lead creator of the research printed within the journal PeerJ.
“The horns and frill have been more than likely used for show in Lokiceratops and different horned dinosaurs. These shows may have been used to intimidate rivals, entice mates or recognise members of the identical species,” Sertich stated.
The shortage of a nostril horn, current in lots of ceratopsians, lessens the chance that Lokiceratops used its horns to defend in opposition to predators, in accordance with palaeontologist and research co-lead creator Mark Loewen of the College of Utah and the Pure Historical past Museum of Utah.
