Newly-discovered dinosaur had horn 'halo,' lived 79 million years ago

A life reconstruction of the Wendiceratops pinhornensis dinosaur (Danielle Dufault)

A newly-discovered horned dinosaur is offering clues about the evolution of the iconic triceratops.

With eight curled horns surrounding a shield behind its head, scientists say the Wendiceratops pinohornesis was one of the most ornamented members of the triceratops family.

"It had a halo of forwardly facing, large, drooping horns," said David Evans, a paleontologist from the Royal Ontario Museum. "This is unlike anything that we’ve seen in any other horned dinosaur."

Scientists first discovered Wendiceratops fossils in southern Alberta in 2010, and immediately suspected they were dealing with a unique specimen, Evans said.

"When we looked at the pieces, we saw some of that ornamentation, the curved horns, and we thought 'This is unusual, we haven’t seen anything quite like this before.' "

After four seasons of digs, Evans and his team uncovered more than 200 bones, and the remains of at least four individual Wendiceratops, three adults and one juvenile.

On Wednesday, they officially announced the discovery in the journal PLOS ONE, and named the dinosaur Wendiceratops, after Wendy Sloboda, who discovered the bone bed near the Montana border.

The Wendiceratops weighed about a thousand kilograms, and measured about 6 feet in length, Evans said. Its body was about the size of a modern-day hippo or rhinoceros, and it had a tail and parrot-like beak to devour plants.

The creature lived about 79 million years ago, making the Wendiceratops one of the oldest-known members of the triceratops family.

By the time the triceratops emerged 13 million years later, the Wendiceratops was long-extinct.

"It likely went extinct relatively quickly, because in another million years in Alberta we have a totally different set of horned dinosaurs," Evans said. "It tells us that the horns and hooks and frills on the skulls of these dinosaurs evolved very rapidly."

Scientists believe the Wendiceratops used its distinct horns to give off social signals. Horns could have communicated age or rank in a herd, and helped attract mates, Evans said.

The age of the Wendiceratops fossils also suggests they were social dinosaurs, Evans said. The fossils in the Alberta bone bed all appeared to be from the same time, suggesting an entire herd died together from the same natural disaster.

That also suggests that there is still a wealth of fossils in the bone bed where Evans has been working.

His team plans to return to the site this summer to search for more fossils. Specifically, they're hunting for pieces that would prove the Wendiceratops had two more horns above its eyes.

In the meantime, Evans said, the public can view a full skeletal reconstruction of Wendiceratops at the Royal Ontario Museum.

That model, nicknamed Cornelius, is part of an ongoing display in the museum’s James and Louise Temerty Galleries of the Age of Dinosaurs.