Yehuecauhceratops
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Yehuecauhceratops Temporal range: Campanian, 72 Ma |
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| Holotype squamosal of Yehuecauhceratops | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Order: | †Ornithischia |
| Family: | †Ceratopsidae |
| Genus: |
†Yehuecauhceratops Rivera-Sylva et al., 2017 |
| Species: | †Y. mudei |
| Binomial name | |
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Yehuecauhceratops mudei Rivera-Sylva et al., 2017 |
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Yehuecauhceratops (meaning "ancient horned face") is a genus of horned centrosaurine ceratopsid dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Coahuila, Mexico. It contains a single species, Y. mudei, described from two partial specimens by Rivera-Sylva et al. in 2016 and formally named by Rivera-Sylva et al. in 2017. It was a small centrosaurine with a body length of 3 metres (9.8 ft), making it smaller than Agujaceratops and Coahuilaceratops, the other two ceratopsids in its environment; the three may have been ecologically segregated. A ridge bearing a single roughened projection near the bottom of the squamosal bone, which probably supported a small horn, allows Yehuecauhceratops to be distinguished from other centrosaurines. Its affinities to centrosaurines, such as Avaceratops and , are supported by various morphological similarities to the former.
Yehuecauhceratops was a small ceratopsid, with a length of about 3 metres (9.8 ft). The type specimen was likely a late subadult or adult, judging by the degree of fusion in the vertebra.
The squamosal of Yehuecauhceratops is the only element that allows it to be confidently distinguished from other ceratopsids. It has a stepped edge on its border with the parietal, which is characteristic of all centrosaurines. Unlike more derived centrosaurines like Styracosaurus, Centrosaurus, and Pachyrhinosaurus, but more similarly to Avaceratops, the squamosal is longer than it is wide. The expanded rear portion of the squamosal is twice the length of the rest of the bone. At its top margin, the squamosal contributed to the outline of the supratemporal fenestra, the slit in the frill base.
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