With a frilled head and beaked face, Menefeeceratops sealeyi, found in New Mexico, lived 82 million years earlier. It preceded its better-known relative, Triceratops. Credit: Sergey Krasovskiy
With a frilled head and beaked face, Menefeeceratops sealeyi lived 82 million years earlier, preceding its relative, Triceratops. Researchers consisting of Peter Dodson, of the School of Veterinary Medicine, and Steven Jasinski, who just recently made his doctorate from the School of Arts & Sciences, explain the discover.
A recently explained horned dinosaur that resided in New Mexico 82 million years earlier is among the earliest recognized ceratopsid types, a group referred to as horned or frilled dinosaurs. Researchers reported their discover in a publication in the journal PalZ (Paläontologische Zeitschrift).
Menefeeceratops sealeyi includes essential info to researchers’ understanding of the development of ceratopsid dinosaurs, which are identified by horns and frills, in addition to beaked faces. In specific, the discovery clarifies the centrosaurine subfamily of horned dinosaurs, of which Menefeeceratops is thought to be the earliest member. Its stays provide a clearer photo of the group’s evolutionary course prior to it went extinct at the end of the Cretaceous.
Steven Jasinski, who just recently finished his Ph.D. in Penn’s Department of Earth and Environmental Science in the School of Arts & Sciences, and Peter Dodson of the School of Veterinary Medicine and Penn Arts & Sciences, worked together on the work, which was led by Sebastian Dalman of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science. Spencer Lucas and Asher Lichtig of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science in Albuquerque were likewise part of the research study group.
“There has been a striking increase in our knowledge of ceratopsid diversity during the past two decades,” states Dodson, who focuses on the research study of horned dinosaurs. “Much of that has resulted from discoveries farther north, from Utah to Alberta. It is particularly exciting that this find so far south is significantly older than any previous ceratopsid discovery. It underscores the importance of the Menefee dinosaur fauna for the understanding of the evolution of Late Cretaceous dinosaur faunas throughout western North America.”
The fossil specimen of the brand-new types, consisting of several bones from one person, was initially found in 1996 by Paul Sealey, a research study partner of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, in Cretaceous rocks of the Menefee Formation in northwestern New Mexico. A field team from the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science gathered the specimen. Tom Williamson of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science briefly explained it the list below year, and current research study on other ceratopsid dinosaurs and more preparation of the specimen shed essential brand-new light on the fossils.
Based on the current examinations, scientists figured out the fossils represent a brand-new types. The genus name Menefeeceratops describes the rock development in which it was found, the Menefee Formation, and to the group of which the types belongs, Ceratopsidae. The types name sealeyi honors Sealey, who uncovered the specimen.
Menefeeceratops belongs to however precedes Triceratops, another ceratopsid dinosaur. However Menefeeceratops was a reasonably little member of the group, growing to around 13 to 15 feet long, compared to Triceratops, which might grow to approximately 30 feet long.
Horned dinosaurs were typically big, rhinoceros-like herbivores that likely resided in groups or herds. They were substantial members of Late Cretaceous environments in North America. “Ceratopsids are better known from various localities in western North America during the Late Cretaceous near the end of the time of dinosaurs,” states Jasinski. “But we have less information about the group, and their fossils are rarer, when you go back before about 79 million years ago.”
Although bones of the whole dinosaur were not recuperated, a considerable quantity of the skeleton was protected, consisting of parts of the skull and lower jaws, lower arm, hindlimbs, hips, vertebrae, and ribs. These bones not just reveal the animal is special amongst recognized dinosaur types however likewise offer extra hints to its biography. For example, the fossils reveal proof of a prospective pathology, arising from a small injury or illness, on a minimum of among the vertebrae near the base of its spine.
Some of the essential functions that identify Menefeeceratops from other horned dinosaurs include the bone that comprise the sides of the dinosaur’s frill, referred to as the squamosal. While less elaborate than those of some other ceratopsids, Menefeeceratops’ squamosal has an unique pattern of concave and convex parts.
Comparing functions of Menefeeceratops with other recognized ceratopsid dinosaurs assisted the research study group trace its evolutionary relationships. Their analysis locations Menefeeceratops sealeyi at the base of the evolutionary tree of the centrosaurines subfamily, recommending that not just is Menefeeceratops among the earliest recognized centrosaurine ceratopsids, however likewise among the most basal evolutionarily.
Menefeeceratops belonged to an ancient community with many other dinosaurs, consisting of the just recently acknowledged nodosaurid ankylosaur Invictarx and the tyrannosaurid Dynamoterror, in addition to hadrosaurids and dromaeosaurids.
“Menefeeceratops was part of a thriving Cretaceous ecosystem in the southwestern United States with dinosaurs that predated a lot of the more well-known members closer to end of the Cretaceous,” states Jasinski.
While fairly less work has actually been done gathering dinosaurs in the Menefee Formation to date, the scientists hope that more field work and gathering in these locations, together with brand-new analyses, will show up more fossils of Menefeeceratops and guarantee a much better understanding of the ancient community of which it was part.
Reference: “The oldest centrosaurine: a new ceratopsid dinosaur (Dinosauria: Ceratopsidae) from the Allison Member of the Menefee Formation (Upper Cretaceous, early Campanian), northwestern New Mexico, USA” by Sebastian G. Dalman, Spencer G. Lucas, Steven E. Jasinski, Asher J. Lichtig and Peter Dodson, 10 May 2021, PalZ.
DOI: 10.1007/s12542-021-00555-w
Peter Dodson is a teacher of anatomy in the School of Veterinary Medicine and a teacher of earth and ecological science in the School of Arts & Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania.
Steven E. Jasinski is a manager of paleontology and geology at the State Museum of Pennsylvania and business professors at Harrisburg University of Science and Technology. He made his postgraduate degree in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science in the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Arts & Sciences.
Sebastian G. Dalman is a research study partner at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science in Albuquerque.
Spencer G. Lucas is a manager of paleontology at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science in Albuquerque.
Asher J. Lichtig is a research study partner at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science in Albuquerque.
Jasinski was supported by Geo. L. Harrison and Benjamin Franklin fellowships while participating in the University of Pennsylvania. The research study was likewise partly moneyed by a Walker Endowment Research Grant and a University of Pennsylvania Paleontology Research Grant.
