Ajkaceratops
Name:
Ajkaceratops
(Ajka horned face).
Phonetic: Oy-kah-seh-rah-tops (the ‘j’ is
silent).
Named By: Attila Osi, Richard J. Butler
& David B. Weishampel - 2010.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Ornithischia, Ceratopsia, Coronosauria, Bagaceratopsidae.
Species: A. kozmai (type).
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: Uncertain due to lack of remains, but
estimated about 1 meter long.
Known locations: Hungary - Csehbanya Formation.
Time period: Santonian of the Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Skull fragments.
Although
only named from partial skull remains representing what seems to be a
small dinosaur, Ajkaceratops has been one of the
most important
dinosaur discoveries of the early twenty-first century; it is the
first ceratopsian
dinosaur definitively proven to have come from
Europe. Ceratopsian dinosaurs were very common across Asia and North
America during the late Cretaceous, in fact until the discovery of
Ajkaceratops, these were the only places where
these kinds of
dinosaurs were known to live.
In
terms of known features, Ajkaceratops has been
considered by its
describers to be most similar to Bagaceratops
and Magnirostris,
both
known from Asia. It is probable that the ancestors of Ajkaceratops
radiated out from Asia before reaching late Cretaceous Europe, which
back then was more a chain of islands that a single continent.
Ajkaceratops would have been a small quadrupedal
dinosaur that browsed
upon low growing vegetation that would have been cropped with its beak
like mouth. Ajkaceratops would have loosely
resembled a smaller
version of the later larger ceratopsian dinosaurs like Chasmosaurus
and
Diabloceratops,
but it would have lacked the elaborate neck frill and
horn displays of these later relatives.
The
Csehbanya Formation where Ajkaceratops fossils are
known is believed to
have been a flood plain back in the late Cretaceous. This habitat
would have large expanses of fertile ground (from silt deposited by
occasional floods) allowing lush low growing vegetation to flourish.
An alternative explanation however might be that Ajkaceratops
lived
upstream in drier conditions and was simply washed down there after
being caught up in a flood. If Ajkaceratops
actually did live in a
flood plain environment though, then it likely shared its habitat
with ornithopod dinosaurs like Rhabdodon,
nodosaurs
like
Hungarosaurus,
and small theropods like Pneumatoraptor,
while
pterosaurs
like Bakonydraco
flew overhead.
Further reading
- A Late Cretaceous ceratopsian dinosaur from Europe with Asian
affinities, Attila Osi, Richard J. Butler & David B.
Weishampel - 2010.
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