Two new horned dinosaurs found

Bizarre beasts lived on an ancient ‘lost continent,’ experts say:

Rachel Kaufman

Two newly discovered horned dinosaur species from an ancient “lost continent” are some of the most surprising and ornate yet found, paleontologists say.

The new dinosaurs are members of the ceratopsids, the group of dinosaurs that includes Triceratops. The animals were generally four-legged herbivores with horns and bony frills rising from the backs of their heads. The larger of the two dinosaurs, Utahceratops gettyi, had a 7-foot-long (2.3-meter-long) skull, prompting study co-author Mark Loewen of the University of Utah to compare the animal to ‘a giant rhino with a ridiculously supersized head.’

The other new dinosaur, Kosmoceratops richardsoni, is “one of the most amazing animals known, with a huge skull decorated with an assortment of bony bells and whistles,” study leader and also of the University of Utah Scott Sampson said in a statement. Kosmoceratops’ head is covered in horns: one on the nose, one over each eye, one at the tip of each cheek, and several running along the dinosaur’s head frill. “Most of these bizarre features would have made lousy weapons to fend off predators,” Sampson said. Instead, the horns were likely a sexual display to attract mates or intimidate rivals.

New Utah dinosaurs ‘Icing on the Cake’

Several partial fossils of both Utahceratops and Kosmoceratops were unearthed in Utah’s Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, home of what was once the ‘lost continent’ of Laramidia.

National Geographic News