New horned dinosaur found in Canada

The creature’s discovery at a fossil site in southern Alberta also reveals the evolution of the nose horn that led to one of the most famous dinosaurs of them all – Triceratops. Its most distinctive feature, though, is a series of forward-curling, hook-like horns along the margin of the wide, shield-like frill that projects from the back of its skull. Unfortunately, the nasal bone was not fully recovered from this specimen but from what does exist, scientists can that it had a large upright nasal horn positioned close to the eyes.

The 20 foot long Wendiceratops pinhornensis, which would have weighed over a ton – was found on an excavation in Alberta in Canada. As David Evans notes, “the number of gnarly frill projections and horns makes it one of the most striking horned dinosaurs ever found”.

The species’ somewhat whimsical name is inspired by the place where its fossilized bones were found (the Pinhorn Provincial Grazing Reserve in Alberta) and the person who found them (Canadian fossil hunter Wendy Sloboda) in 2010.

Writing in the journal PLOS ONE, paleontologists explain that, although it is very much true that they looked positively terrifying, the fact of the matter is that Wendiceratops pinhornensis were not vicious predatory beasts.

The name of the Wendiceratops means “Wendy’s horned-face”.

The species is called, fittingly, Wendiceratops.

It marks the beginning of the evolution of nose horns in the ceratopsian group of species, which includes the triceratops. Interestingly, it would appear that these earlier ceratopsians had more elaborate head ornamentation than the last surviving members of the lineage, indicating that later species may have sacrificed showiness in favour of defensive armour and weaponry (which was probably a decent trade-off considering they shared their world with terrifying predators such as Tyrannosaurus rex). Like Triceratops, it had horns emanating from its face and head, along with a bony beak that it used to shred plants before eating them.

The next new species may already be emerging from one of his digs. A nose horn has been generally thought to characterize Ceratopsidae, and be present in their common ancestor.

“No other dinosaur has the same pattern of curled-over horns like that”, Loewen said.

It’s believed the male dinosaurs used their two main horns to battle for female attention, according to the study. Over the past three decades, she has uncovered hundreds of important fossils.

A native of southern Alberta, Sloboda started searching for – and finding – dinosaur fossils as a child with her family. “Wendy Sloboda has a sixth sense for discovering important fossils”.

A mounted skeleton of Wendiceratops pinhornensis (nicknamed Cornelius) is now on display in the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto Canada.