Brachyceratops

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Brachyceratops
Temporal range:
Ma
↓
Holotype specimen USNM 7951 mounted in the Smithsonian
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: †Ornithischia
Clade: †Ceratopsia
Family: †Ceratopsidae
Subfamily: †Centrosaurinae
Genus: †Brachyceratops
Gilmore, 1914
Species:
†B. montanensis
Binomial name
†Brachyceratops montanensis
Gilmore, 1914

Brachyceratops ('short horned face') is a

Period of Montana, United States
.

Brachyceratops has historically been known from juvenile remains, with one specimen having since been re-classified as

Rubeosaurus ovatus.[1][2]

History of discovery

Norman Ross completing the Smithsonian mount

Brachyceratops montanensis, the

C. W. Gilmore[3] and his assistant John Floyd Strayer and was named and shortly described by Gilmore one year later. The generic name is derived from Greek: βραχύς, brachys, "short", Greek: κέρας, keras, "horn" and Greek: ὤψ, ops, "face", in reference to the short snout. The specific name refers to the provenance from Montana.[4]

All that was found were incomplete and jumbled remains of five juvenile individuals of about 1.5 m (5 feet) in length.[3] It has been speculated that these juveniles may have been nest mates that stayed together after hatching.[3] The holotype specimen is USNM 7951, a partial skull. The paratypes are USNM 7952, a snout, USNM 7953, a partial skeleton with skull and USNM 7957, a foot. The material is disarticulated but the preservation is excellent.[5] In 1917 Gilmore published a monograph on Brachyceratops in which a reconstruction of the skeleton as a whole was given.[6]

In 1939 Gilmore referred a larger subadult specimen, USNM 14765, to Brachyceratops.

Washington D.C.,[3]
where a skeletal restoration is mounted.

As Brachyceratops is known only from the

Rubeosaurus
.

Description

Life restoration

Among the five original specimens parts of three skulls were discovered, detached from their owner's body and fragmented.

ceratopsians possessed.[3]

Classification

Illustration of the holotype skull from the left and above

Brachyceratops belonged to the

apomorphy) in common with Rubeosaurus to the exclusion of other centrosaurines. However, the same study suggested that because the holotype specimen of Brachyceratops is too incomplete and juvenile to preserve any determinable apomorphies, Brachyceratops must be considered a nomen dubium, and cannot be a senior synonym of Rubeosaurus.[9]

Paleoecology

Dinosaurs that lived alongside Brachyceratops include the basal

tyrannosaurid Daspletosaurus (which appears to have been a specialist of preying on ceratopsians), as well as the smaller theropods Bambiraptor, Chirostenotes, Troodon, and Avisaurus
.

See also

References

  1. ^
    S2CID 86218327
    . Retrieved 2010-08-19.
  2. ^ a b Andrew T. McDonald & John R. Horner, (2010). "New Material of "Styracosaurus" ovatus from the Two Medicine Formation of Montana", In: Michael J. Ryan, Brenda J. Chinnery-Allgeier, and David A. Eberth (eds), New Perspectives on Horned Dinosaurs: The Royal Tyrrell Museum Ceratopsian Symposium, Indiana University Press, 656 pp.
  3. ^
    ISBN 0-7853-0443-6
    .
  4. ^ C.W. Gilmore, 1914, "A new ceratopsian dinosaur from the Upper Cretaceous of Montana, with note on Hypacrosaurus", Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections 63(3): 1-10[1]
  5. ^ Dodson, P., 1996, The Horned Dinosaurs — A natural history, Princeton University Press, p. 154
  6. ^ C.W. Gilmore, 1917, "Brachyceratops, a ceratopsian dinosaur from the Two Medicine Formation of Montana, with notes on associated fossil reptiles", United States Geological Survey Professional Paper 103: 1-45
  7. ^ Gilmore C.W. 1939, "Ceratopsian dinosaurs from the Two Medicine Formation, Upper Cretaceous of Montana", Proceedings of the United States National Museum 87: 1–18
  8. ^ Sampson, S.D., M. J. Ryan, and D. H. Tanke. (1997). "Craniofacial ontogeny in centrosaurine dinosaurs (Ornithischia: Ceratopsidae): taphonomic and behavioral implications." Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 121: 293–337.
  9. PMID 21853043
    .
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