Arrhinoceratops Temporal range: Early Maastrichtian, 70.6–70 Ma |
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Arrhinoceratops brachyops at the Royal Ontario Museum | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Reptilia |
Clade: | Dinosauria |
Order: | †Ornithischia |
Family: | †Ceratopsidae |
Subfamily: | †Chasmosaurinae |
Genus: |
†Arrhinoceratops Parks, 1925 |
Species: | †A. brachyops |
Binomial name | |
Arrhinoceratops brachyops Parks, 1925 |
Arrhinoceratops (meaning "no nose-horn face", derived from the Ancient Greek "a-/α-" "no", rhis/ῥίς "nose" "keras/κέρας" "horn", "-ops/ὤψ" "face") is a genus of herbivorous ceratopsian dinosaur. The name was coined as its original describer concluded it was special because the nose-horn was not a separate bone, however further analysis revealed this was based on a misunderstanding. It lived during the latest Campanian/earliest Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous, predating its famous relative Triceratops by a few million years, although it was contemporary with Anchiceratops. Its remains have been found in Canada.
Described by William Arthur Parks in 1925, Arrhinoceratops is known from a partially crushed, slightly distorted skull which lacked the lower jaws. The remains were collected from the Neill's Ranch site, along the Red Deer River in Alberta by a 1923 expedition from the University of Toronto.
Parks named the type species Arrhinoceratops brachyops. The generic name is derived from Greek α~, "without", ῥίς, rhis, "nose", κέρας, keras, "horn", and ὤψ, ops, "face" as Parks had established that no separate nose-horn was present. The specific name means "short-faced" from Greek βραχύς, brachys, "short".
The holotype is ROM 796 (earlier ROM 5135), which was found in a layer of the Horseshoe Canyon Formation dating from the latest Campanian or perhaps earliest Maastrichtian. It consists of the original skull.