New ceratopsian species & a neat find

Say hello to Mercuriceratops gemini, the newest species of dinosaur.

Unlike the other 60-plus known species of horned dinosaurs, Mercuriceratops has wing-like protrusions on the side of its skull.

"The first time we saw it, it reminded us of the fins of a 1950s Cadillac," said Michael Ryan, curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, in an interview with USA TODAY Network.

Measuring about 20 feet long and weighing more than 2 tons, Mercuriceratops lived about 77 million years ago.

The species is named after Mercury, the Roman god with the winged helmet. Mercuriceratops means "Mercury horned-face," Ryan said. 

Scientists don't think the protrusions were used for protection because the bone is "pretty thin and would snap easily," Ryan said.

Instead, the ornamentation was probably a way to attract mates; Something the Ceratopsian lineage is very well known for."Males are trying to reproduce with females, and you need to stand out from the crowd," he said.

The scientists have found parts of two skulls, one in Montana and the other in Alberta, Canada. When the first specimen was found in 2007 in Montana, scientists thought it was from an animal that was deformed, but when the second was discovered in 2012, "we knew we had something new that wasn't an anomaly," Ryan said.

"Mercuriceratops took a unique evolutionary path that shaped the large frill on the back of its skull into protruding wings like the decorative fins on classic 1950s cars," Ryan stated.

The discovery of a new chasmosaurine Ceratopsian shows that late Cretaceous north America was fairly diverse.

Onto the next...

A fairly well preserved skeleton of  Psittacosaurus Sibiricus has been unearthed in Russia. The remains were almost completely intact, giving us an even better idea at the early Ceratopsids skeletal structure.

The end result will be an exhibit of global significance which is likely to attract not only Kemerovo paleontologists, but also representatives of major profile institutes,"  Director of the Kemerovo regional local history museum Olga Feofanova told Interfax on Monday.
The skeleton, discovered by Kemerovo researchers, will be used to conduct a comparative analysis and establish the animal's exact age and size, she added.

Psittacosaurus remains have been found in the region as early as the early 19th century, but none were nearly as intact.

 Psittacosaurus Sibiricus family lived in Asia about 130-100 million years ago. The remains found in different parts of modern China, Mongolia and Russia belonged to at least ten Psittacosaurus Species. This shows how the Ceratopsian lineage dug its roots in deep in multiple countries, and continued to flourish until the Asteroid wiped the dinosaurs off the face of the planet.