Serendipaceratops
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Serendipaceratops Temporal range: Early Cretaceous |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Superorder: | Dinosauria |
| Order: | Ornithischia |
| (unranked): | Genasauria |
| Genus: |
Serendipaceratops Rich & Vickers-Rich, 2003 |
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Serendipaceratops (meaning "serendipitous horned face") is a dubious genus of herbivorous ornithischian dinosaur from the early Cretaceous Period of Australia.
The first known bone from Serendipaceratops, an ulna (lower arm bone), was in 1993 discovered in Australia near Kilcunda, on the south-east coast of Victoria. The find took place during the "Dinosaur Cove" project, uncovering remains at the basis of a cliff face at the shoreline; the fossil was excavated in the "Arch", a small area of sea-floor protected from the waves by a dam.
In 2003, the type species Serendipaceratops arthurcclarkei was named and described by Tom Rich and Patricia Vickers-Rich. Initially, the discoverers had not considered the possibility that the fossil might have been ceratopsian in nature as at this would have been the last group of dinosaurs one would have expected to find evidence of in Australia. Instead they had tried to convince themselves it was a theropod bone. Some months later, however, on a visit to the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Alberta, Canada, colleague Dale Russell pointed out its striking similarity to the ulna of . Hence the genus name, referring to serendipity and combining this reference with ~ceratops, a common suffix in ceratopsian generic names. The specific name honours science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke. A personal friend of the couple and author of books such as 2001: A Space Odyssey and Rendezvous with Rama, Clarke first became interested in science as a child because he became fascinated by dinosaurs. Perhaps coincidentally, "Serendip" is a former name for Sri Lanka, Clarke's adoptive country.
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