Ojoceratops
Name:
Ojoceratops
(Ojo horned face - After the Ojo Alamo Formation).
Phonetic: O-joe-seh-rah-tops.
Named By: Sullivan & Lucas - 2010.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Ornithischia, Ceratopsia, Ceratopsidae, Chasmosaurinae,
Triceratopsini.
Species: O. fowleri (type).
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: Estimated at up to 6 meters long.
Known locations: USA, New Mexico - Ojo Alamo
Formation.
Time period: Maastrichtian of the Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Partial skull.
Fossils
sitting in a museum and sometimes thought to belong to one kind of
ceratopsian
dinosaur are sometimes found to actually represent another
upon later examination. This is how others such as Mojoceratops
and
Spinops
were discovered, and is also how Ojoceratops was
discovered.
Ojoceratops was classed as Torosaurus,
but is
thought to have
resembled a Triceratops
with a squared off frill.
The
discovery and naming of new genera means publishing study papers that
details the distinguishing features of a genus, the identifying
characteristics that make one genus standout from amongst others. The
raising of the new Ojoceratops genus from
unfamiliar fossil material
has allowed other palaeontologists to share their opinions upon the
raising of the genus and its validity. Unfortunately for Ojoceratops
many have pointed out stark similarities to both Triceratops
and
Eotriceratops.
Further study may yet declare it as
a synonym to one
of these two genera.
Further reading
- A new chasmosaurine (Ceratopsidae, Dinosauria) from the Upper
Cretaceous Ojo Alamo Formation (Naashoibito Member), San Juan Basin,
New Mexico. New Perspectives on Horned Dinosaurs: The Royal Tyrrell
Museum Ceratopsian Symposium. - Indiana University Press, Bloomington
169-180. - R. M. Sullivan & S. G. Lucas - 2010.
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