Welcome to Albertaceratops
Name Definition
Alberta’s horned face
Name Given By
Michael J. Ryan in 2007
Location
Oldman Formation of Alberta, Canada
Classification
Dinosauria, Ornithischia, Marginocephalia, Ceratopsia, Ceratopsidae, Centrosaurinae
Size
estimated to be around 2 meters tall, around 6 meters long, about 3.85 tons
Temporal Range
Campanian stage of the late Cretaceous, around 77.5 million years ago
Ecological niche
social herbivore with horns as defense
Species/Sub Species
A. nesmoi
Diet
similar to other ceratopsians, Albertaceratops may have used mastication which is a rare trait in dinosaurs (also known as chewing) to consume hard plant material
Introduction
Albertaceratops is a genus of centrosaurine ceratopsians that lived in Alberta during the late Cretaceous. Alberaceratops means “Alberta’s horned face” which is a reference to it being discovered in Alberta, Canada and "ceratops" is a common suffix for most ceratopsian names. The species name, nesmoi, honors Cecil Nesmo who is a rancher that lives in Alberta. He was honored by the species name in acknowledgement of his past contributions to aid fossil hunters. Considering it has unusually long brow horns for a centrosaurine, Albertaceratops is considered to be one of the more basal centrosaurines as most of them evolved to have shorter brow horns. Some other distinguishing features that Albertaceratops possesses is the bony boss that replaces the snout horn present in most other centrosaurines, which is similar to Achelousaurus and Pachyrhinosaurus, as well as two spikes on the top of its frill which curve outwards in opposite directions. Additional remains coming from Albertaceratops were also reported from the Judith River Formation in Montana, though these fossils have since been re-attributed to the new centrosaurine genus Medusaceratops.