Researchers have discovered a new dinosaur herbivore species with giant horns, named Lokiceratops rangiformis, in a swampy area in Montana, USA. This exciting discovery was announced by the scientific journal PeerJ on Thursday. The new dinosaur has the largest frilled horns ever seen on a ceratopsian, according to Joseph Sertich, a paleontologist at the Smithsonian Institution and Colorado State University who co-directed the research.
Living over 78 million years ago, Lokiceratops roamed the swamps and plains along the eastern coast of Laramidia, which is now western North America. These four-legged dinosaurs had over 200 teeth for cutting vegetation, measured about 6.7 meters in length, and weighed around five tons. Unique features of Lokiceratops rangiformis include the absence of a nose horn, huge blade-like horns on the back of the frill – the largest ever seen on a horned dinosaur – and a distinct and asymmetrical tip in the middle of the frill.
The name Lokiceratops comes from “horned face of Loki,” after the Norse god Loki, while the second name, rangiformis, refers to the different lengths of the antlers on each side of the frill. Researchers believe that Lokiceratops belonged to a family of horned dinosaurs called centrosauruses that underwent rapid evolution and lived in small geographic areas on Laramidia Island.
Funding for this study was provided by several organizations including Museum of Evolution at University of Utah and National Science Foundation. The original specimen was first discovered and excavated by Mark Eatman in 2019 and is currently displayed at Museum of Evolution in Maribo Denmark. Replicas can be found at Royal Ontario Museum Canada and Utah Museum Natural History USA.[
