Xenoceratops
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Xenoceratops Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, 78.5-77.5 Ma |
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| Restoration | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Order: | †Ornithischia |
| Family: | †Ceratopsidae |
| Subfamily: | †Centrosaurinae |
| Genus: |
†Xenoceratops Ryan, Evans & Shepherd, 2012 |
| Type species | |
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†Xenoceratops foremostensis Ryan, Evans & Shepherd, 2012 |
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Xenoceratops is a genus of centrosaurine ceratopsid dinosaur known from the Late Cretaceous (middle Campanian stage) of Alberta, Canada. The genus has one known species, Xenoceratops foremostensis. Its remains were discovered in the Foremost Formation.
Xenoceratops is named from the Greek xenos, meaning foreign, and ceratops, meaning horned face. The combination is in reference to the lack of ceratopsian species known from the Foremost Formation. The specific ephithet foremostensis is named after the town of Foremost, Alberta.
In 1958, Wann Langston, Jr. excavated skull fragments from the Foremost Formation near Foremost, Alberta. The formation is very poorly understood in regards to dinosaur fauna; aside from teeth, only hadrosaur skeletons and the pachycephalosaurid Colepiocephale have been reported.
Langston stored the fragments in cabinets at the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa. Around 2003, David C. Evans and Michael J. Ryan became curious about the specimens, and more thorough investigation was conducted in 2009. They discovered it to be a new species and genus, and it was described in 2012 by Ryan, Evans, and Kieran M. Shepherd. At the time of discovery, Xenoceratops foremostensis was the oldest known taxon of ceratopsid dinosaur in Canada. It is also the first ceratopsian described from the Foremost Formation.
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Wikipedia