In 2019, in the US state of Montana, just a few kilometers from the Canadian border, the remains of a very strange dinosaur with a very ornate skull were found. In examining the fossils, a In PeerJ The specialists reported that research A Colorado State University and University of Utah to explain
Reconstructed Lokiceratops skull at the Danish Museum of Evolution
Source: Museum of Evolution
the Lucceratops rangeiformis The animal of the name reveals that its contemporaries evolved to be extremely diverse, with the contemporary environment facilitating the evolution of endemic species. The herbivore's name conceals the name of the Norse god Loki, and also suggests that its strange, androgynous, antlers resemble those of a reindeer.
This is what North America looked like at the end of the Cretaceous period.
Source: Wikimedia Commons
North America was radically different at that time. Not only was the climate tropical, but the center of the continent was divided by a sea. On the western side of this sea lies the Laramide, where a number of animals with a peculiar appearance have been found, belonging to the ceratopsids, which lived at the same time. Among the animals that wear very strange faces and head coverings, the strangest and largest so far is the A Lucceratops.
The headdresses of Ceratopsids are very diverse
Source: Berg
“Previously, paleontologists believed that a maximum of two dinosaurs wearing different horns could have lived together at the same time and in the same place. Incredibly, we have identified five of these animals living together in one place,” explained Mark Lewin, one of the leaders of the research. One. The Luciratops Its remains were cleaned up in the years after it was found, and the bones were put together to reconstruct the animal. The Utah Museum of Natural History houses a replica of the fossil, which can be viewed.
What did Lociceratops look like?
The animal was 6.7 meters long, one and a half times the size of an African elephant, and must have weighed about 5 tons. This species did not have the horn worn on the nose typical of its group, but instead had a larger nape on the back of the skull. According to experts, these extreme headdresses explain the diversity of ceratopsids.
They imagine that these ornaments resemble bird feathers, and in doing so the researchers also point to the fact that, from an evolutionary perspective, similar principles may have guided their evolution. Just as birds have a variety of feathers, so does the diversity of head coverings for ceratopsids. This could be an advantage for both specific recognition and mate choice.
Imaginative depictions of ceratopsids that lived in one place based on fossils.
Source: Fabrizio Lavezzi
Of the five ceratopsids discovered in one place, 3 were close relatives, but they lived exclusively in that place, that is, they were endemic. Endemicity was created by the separation of individual species from each other and their formation in smaller areas with different environmental conditions. However, for about. 12 million years after Triceratops When it appeared, this former species richness had disappeared, probably due to a more balanced climate, with only two horned species living from Mexico to Canada.
Fantasy image
Source: Fabrizio Lavezzi
the Lucceratops It draws our attention to the fact that what we know could only be the tip of the iceberg, and that it is possible that there were many more dinosaurs in one place than we currently know based on fossils.
