Dinosaur Had Horns the Size of Baseball Bats

[n2doc]

By Jeanna Bryner, LiveScience Managing Editor
posted: 28 May 2010 12:02 pm ET

This fleshed-out artist's rendering of the Mexican horned dinosaur Coahuilaceratops, shows its gigantic horns – larger than any member of its group, including the famous Triceratops. Credit: Lukas Panzarin for the Utah Museum of Natural History.

A tubby dinosaur sporting horns each the length of a baseball bat roamed what is now Mexico some 72 million years ago.

Remains of the plant-eating dinosaur, now called Coahuilaceratops magnacuerna, were unearthed from the Cerro del Pueblo Formation in Coahuila, Mexico. Fossils belonging to both an adult and juvenile of the species were unearthed at the site.

When alive, the dinosaur would have been about the size of a rhinoceros, weighing 4 to 5 tons (3,600 to 4,500 kilograms), with horns estimated to be 3 to 4 feet long (about 1 meter). The horns are considered the longest of any ceratopsids, a group of plant-eating horned dinosaurs whose members include the famous Triceratops.

Like other horned dinosaurs, Coahuilaceratops probably used its headgear to attract mates and fight with rivals of the same species.

more
http://www.livescience.com/animals/horned-dinosaur-mexico-monster-storm-100528.html

[izquierdista]

1. But could he hit one over the left field fence?

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. Seems a little bigger than a baseball bat

3 to 4 feet, compared with up to 34". And if they're longer, I'd say the horns were also thicker, going by that illustration.

[kestrel91316]

3. That's not a "dinosaur", silly. That's obvously Satan.

[kestrel91316]

4. Oh, and he looks like he's the ancestor of these:

Horned lizards have been a desert favorite of mine since I was about 4.