New Species of Multi-horned Dinosaurs Unearthed in Utah

[Kadie]

New Species of Multi-horned Dinosaurs Unearthed in Utah

With looks that kill, two newly discovered dinosaur species once roamed lost continent in what is now southern Utah


Scott Sampson pictured with the fossil of the species Kosmoceratops richardsoni.


September 22, 2010

"A giant rhino with a ridiculously supersized head"

"Fifteen long, pointed sideways oriented eye horns: one over the nose, one atop each eye, one at the tip of each cheek bone, and ten across the rear margin of the bony frill"

"A horned face: large horn over the nose and short, blunt eye horns that project strongly to the side"

Such phrases have been used to describe two newly discovered species of dinosaurs with looks only a mother could love. Still, they are drawing the attention and inspiring the imagination of scientists and lay people alike.

Announced today in PLoS ONE, the online open-access journal produced by the Public Library of Science, two new species of horned dinosaurs--Utahceratops gettyi and Kosmoceratops richardsoni--have been found in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah. Close relatives of the famous Triceratops, these giant plant eaters were once inhabitants of the "lost island continent" of Laramidia, a swampy, subtropical setting formed when a shallow sea flooded the central region of North America, isolating the eastern and western portions of the continent for millions of years during the late Cretaceous period.

more...
http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=117745&WT.mc_id=USNSF_51&WT.mc_ev=click


more pics here

http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_images.jsp?cntn_id=117745&org=NSF

[uncommon]

1. God put it there to test our faith.

:P

[BillStein]

2. Bet our ancestors

really enjoyed riding on that one!

[CreekDog]

3. I think there's a lot of multi horned dinosaurs in Utah right now

actually.