Zuniceratops Dinosaur

Tuesday, October 19, 2010



Zuniceratops (Zuni-horned dinosaur) was exposed in 1996 by 8 year old Christopher James Wolfe, son of paleontologist Douglas G. Wolfe, in the Moreno Hill Formation in New Mexico, USA. One skull and the bones from more than a few individuals have been found.

Zuniceratops appears to have been approximately 10-11 feet long (three to 3.5 meters) and three feet tall (one meter) at the hips. It almost certainly weighed 200 to 250 pounds (100 to 150 kilograms). The frill at the back its head was fenestrated, but lacking exoccipitals. It is the earliest-known ceratopsian to have eyebrow horns. This set of horns is consideration to have grown much larger with age.

Zuniceratops is an example of the evolutionary transition between early ceratopsians such as Protoceratops and the later, better ceratopsians that had very large horns and frills. This ropes to theory that the lineage of ceratopsian dinosaurs may have been North American in origin.

Though the first specimen exposed had single-rooted teeth (unusual for ceratopsians), later fossils had double-rooted teeth. This is proof that the teeth became double-rooted with age. Zuniceratops was an Herbivore like other ceratopsians and almost certainly a herd animal as well.

Source from great site: http://www.rareresource.com

Read more interesting topic about dinosaur fossils.


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