What dinosaurs' colour patterns say about their habitat
After reconstructing the colour patterns of a well-preserved dinosaur from China, researchers from the University of Bristol have found that the long-lost species Psittacosaurus (meaning "parrot lizard", a reference to its parrot-like beak) was light on its underside and darker on top. This colour pattern, known as countershading, is a common form of camouflage in modern animals. The study published today in Current Biology led the researchers to conclude that Psittacosaurus most likely lived in an environment with diffuse light, such as in a forest, and has produced the most life-like reconstruction of a dinosaur ever created. Read more
New 'Wendiceratops' named for legendary Alberta dinosaur hunter Wendy Sloboda
Wendy Sloboda, a professional photographer who lives in Warner, Alta., south of Lethbridge, discovered the first fossils of the new species in southern Alberta in 2010. Wendiceratops pinhornensis is a newly named hippo-sized horned dinosaur related to Triceratops. A life-sized 3D-printed model of a Wendiceratops skeleton is currently on display at the Royal Ontario Museum. Read more
A new ceratopsid from the Foremost Formation (middle Campanian) of Alberta
Xenoceratops foremostensis gen. et. sp. nov., a new centrosaurine ceratopsid from the Foremost Formation (Campanian) of Alberta, is described based on frill material from at least three adult-sized individuals collected from a low-density bone bed. The material can be assigned to Centrosaurinae based on features of the preserved squamosal. Although the parietals are incomplete, the shape of the diagnostic parietal can be inferred from several overlapping serial elements. The parietal of the new taxon shares with all other centrosaurines, except Centrosaurus apertus, spike-like ornamentation at the posterolateral (P3) locus under traditional coding methods. Read more
Earlier this summer, former Royal Tyrrell Museum employee Tim Schowalter stumbled across the Triceratops site on an old road cut near Drumheller (a place famous for its proximity to dinosaur-rich badlands). From there, Royal Tyrrell Museum paleontologist François Therrien led the excavation of the Triceratops "log jam." Included in the lot are large vertebrae and ribs over six feet long, indicating that this was a Triceratops of considerable size. Read more
Two new dinosaur species from Alberta, including one of the smallest adult plant-eating dinosaurs ever discovered, have been named after Canadians. The first, which was about the size of a medium-sized dog, was named Gryphoceratops morrisoni, after Ian Morrison, a technician at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, who figured out how fossil fragments from the dinosaur's jaw fit together. The other new species from the same family, Unescopceratops koppelhusae, has been named after Eva Koppelhus, a University of Alberta biologist who studies ancient plant spores and pollen that have been used to help figure out the age of other dinosaur fossils.
Triceratops and Torosaurus dinosaurs 'two species, not one'
A study has rejected claims that Triceratops and the lesser-known Torosaurus are one and the same type of dinosaur. Research published in 2010 suggested the two-horned animals represented merely different growth stages, with Torosaurus the adult and Triceratops the youngster. But researchers at Yale University say the fossils do not support the theory. Read more
Long-ignored fossil determined to be new species of horned dinosaur
A set of dinosaur bones unearthed in Alberta in 1916 and left unexamined on a shelf in Britain's Natural History Museum for more than 90 years has yielded an unexpected and significant discovery: a new species of horned dinosaur that is forcing scientists to rethink the dividing line between two huge, plant-eating beasts related to the well-known triceratops. The 75-million-year-old skull fragments from several individuals of the newly identified species were found during a First World War-era dig in a dinosaur bonebed southeast of Calgary, within or just outside of today's Dinosaur Provincial Park. Read more
A nest of 15 young dinosaurs uncovered in Mongolia - cousins of Triceratops - now suggests these plant-eating beasts might have cared for their young, scientists reveal. The dinosaur is named Protoceratops andrewsi, a sheep-size herbivore that lived about 70 million years ago that's known for the frill at the back of its head. Within the nest were infants about 10 to 15 centimetres long and probably no more than a year old. Read more
Triceratops and Torosaurus have long been considered the kings of the horned dinosaurs. But a new discovery traces the giants' family tree further back in time, when a newly discovered species appears to have reigned long before its more well-known descendants, making it the earliest known member of its family. The new species, called Titanoceratops after the Greek myth of the Titans, rivalled Triceratops in size, with an estimated weight of nearly 15,000 pounds and a massive eight-foot-long skull.
MSU finds Triceratops, Torosaurus were different stages of one dinosaur
Since the late 1800s, scientists have believed that Triceratops and Torosaurus were two different types of dinosaurs. Triceratops had a three-horned skull with a rather short frill, whereas Torosaurus had a much bigger frill with two large holes through it. MSU paleontologists John Scannella and Jack Horner said in the July 14 issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, however, that Triceratops and Torosaurus are actually the same dinosaur at different stages of growth. Read more