Meet Lokiceratops, a dinosaur with unique horns

An artist depicts Lokiceratops as it might have appeared 78 million years ago in what is now Montana. (Photo: ©Andrey Atuchin for the Maribo Museum of Evolution, Denmark, CC BY-NC-ND)

Dinosaurs range from the largest (sauroposeidon) to the smallest (alvarezsaur). New species are continually being discovered, and another unique species has resurfaced in ancient rock. This fancy four-legged beast discovered in Montana has ornate horns, hence its new scientific name Lokiceratops rangiformisThe discovery was announced in PeerJ.

Lokiceratops rangiformis was a massive beast that roamed the Earth about 78 million years ago. Measuring 22 feet long and weighing 11,000 pounds, the dinosaur walked on four legs. Its diet was plant-based. As a ceratopsid, a type of horned dinosaur, its skull is a testament to its unique cranial structure. It has two “regular” horns on its forehead. Above this is a large bony frill that extends behind its head. Above this frill are two unique, coiled horns with tiny adjacent spikes, one smaller than the other. Hence the name given to the new species, which honors the Norse god’s horned helmet and the uneven nature of caribou antlers.

Lokiceratops The results of this study also indicate that dinosaurs in the Montana and Alberta regions were more diverse and evolved more rapidly than previously thought. “In addition to being one of the largest and most richly decorated horned dinosaurs ever discovered, Lokiceratops also reveals a surprisingly high level of richness in a Laramidian ecosystem,” Dr. Joseph Sertich tells IFL Science. Dr. Sertich is a paleontologist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and Colorado State University and was the lead author of the study. “Even more surprising, three of the five horned dinosaurs that lived in this ecosystem are close relatives, revealing a surprising pattern of rapid and regionally restricted evolution in the group of centrosaurine horned dinosaurs, a pattern similar to that of birds and other animals that use display features.”

“Having a giant head like Lokiceratops required massive neck muscles to balance it on the body and a lot of calories for the animal to grow as it grew,” said co-author Dr. Mark Loewen, associate professor and vertebrate paleontologist at the University of Utah. “At the same time, it must have been so impressive to potential mates that it was definitely worth having such a huge head!”

This fanciful dinosaur would surely have looked impressive roaming its habitat millions of years ago, and its fossil remains impressive today.

Meet the Lokiceratops rangiformisa massive four-legged dinosaur that roamed what is now Montana 78 million years ago.

Representations of four centrosaurine dinosaurs that lived together. (Photo: Fabrizio Lavezzi © Evolutionsmuseet, Knuthenborg, CC BY-NC-ND)

A Lokiceratops skull at the Museum of Evolution. (Photo: Museum of Evolution, CC BY-NC-ND)

h/t: (IFL Science, Gizmodo)

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