Monday, 1 December 2014

New horned dinosaur species identified from museum's fossils


A new species of horned dinosaur has been identified from fossils held in a Canadian museum for 75 years.

The fossils had previously been classified as belonging to a different dinosaur group.

But Nick Longrich, from the University of Bath, found they closely resembled a dinosaur from the south-west US.

He says the remains represent a new species of the dinosaur Pentaceratops - a smaller cousin of the familiar horned plant-eater Triceratops.

Details of the research have been published in the journal Cretaceous Research.

'Undiscovered dinosaurs'
The paper contains a formal description of the animal including its new name - Pentaceratops aquilonius.

It was a buffalo-sized plant eater that lived from about 75 million years ago.

Dr Longrich also studied another horned dinosaur held within the museum's collection.

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