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''Ceratops'' (meaning "horn face") is a
dubious Doubt is a mental state in which the mind remains suspended between two or more contradictory propositions, unable to be certain of any of them. Doubt on an emotional level is indecision between belief and disbelief. It may involve uncertainty ...
genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...
of herbivorous
ceratopsia Ceratopsia or Ceratopia ( or ; Greek: "horned faces") is a group of herbivorous, beaked dinosaurs that thrived in what are now North America, Europe, and Asia, during the Cretaceous Period, although ancestral forms lived earlier, in the Jurass ...
n
dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...
which lived during the
Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''creta'', ...
. Its fossils have been found in the
Judith River Formation The Judith River Formation is a fossil-bearing geologic formation in Montana, and is part of the Judith River Group. It dates to the Late Cretaceous, between 79 and 75.3 million years ago, corresponding to the "Judithian" land vertebrate age. It ...
in
Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columb ...
. Although poorly known, ''Ceratops'' is important in the history of dinosaurs, since it is the
type genus In biological taxonomy, the type genus is the genus which defines a biological family and the root of the family name. Zoological nomenclature According to the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, "The name-bearing type of a nominal ...
for which both the
Ceratopsia Ceratopsia or Ceratopia ( or ; Greek: "horned faces") is a group of herbivorous, beaked dinosaurs that thrived in what are now North America, Europe, and Asia, during the Cretaceous Period, although ancestral forms lived earlier, in the Jurass ...
and the Ceratopsidae have been named. The material is too poor to be confidently referred to better specimens, and ''Ceratops'' is thus considered a ''
nomen dubium In binomial nomenclature, a ''nomen dubium'' (Latin for "doubtful name", plural ''nomina dubia'') is a scientific name that is of unknown or doubtful application. Zoology In case of a ''nomen dubium'' it may be impossible to determine whether a s ...
''.


History

The first remains referred to ''Ceratops'' — an
occipital condyle The occipital condyles are undersurface protuberances of the occipital bone in vertebrates, which function in articulation with the superior facets of the atlas vertebra. The condyles are oval or reniform (kidney-shaped) in shape, and their anteri ...
and a pair of horn cores — were found by
John Bell Hatcher John Bell Hatcher (October 11, 1861 – July 3, 1904) was an American paleontologist and fossil hunter known as the "king of collectors" and best known for discovering ''Torosaurus'' and ''Triceratops'', two genera of dinosaurs described by O ...
(1861–1904) in the late summer of 1888 near the Cow Creek in Blaine County in the uppermost
Judith River Formation The Judith River Formation is a fossil-bearing geologic formation in Montana, and is part of the Judith River Group. It dates to the Late Cretaceous, between 79 and 75.3 million years ago, corresponding to the "Judithian" land vertebrate age. It ...
of Montana. Hatcher was at the time employed by Professor
Othniel Charles Marsh Othniel Charles Marsh (October 29, 1831 – March 18, 1899) was an American professor of Paleontology in Yale College and President of the National Academy of Sciences. He was one of the preeminent scientists in the field of paleontology. Among ...
who the same year named the find as the
type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specim ...
''Ceratops montanus''. The generic name was derived from Greek κέρας, ''keras'', "horn", and ὤψ, ''ops'', "face". The specific name referred to Montana. Marsh originally believed the animal to be similar to ''
Stegosaurus ''Stegosaurus'' (; ) is a genus of herbivorous, four-legged, armored dinosaur from the Late Jurassic, characterized by the distinctive kite-shaped upright plates along their backs and spikes on their tails. Fossils of the genus have been fou ...
'', but with two horns on the back of its head, a body length of twenty-five to thirty feet, horizontal plates on its back and bipedal. According to Marsh it would have "represented a very strange appearance". In his illustration of the horn pair, purportedly showing them from behind, Marsh had switched their position and rotated their outside to the rear to make them point inwards.J.B. Hatcher, O.C. Marsh, and R.S. Lull'', 1907 The Ceratopsia''. Monographs of the United States Geological Survey 49 pp 198 The holotype, USNM 2411, was found in a layer dating from the
Campanian The Campanian is the fifth of six ages of the Late Cretaceous Epoch on the geologic timescale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). In chronostratigraphy, it is the fifth of six stages in the Upper Cretaceous Series. Campani ...
. It consists, apart from the occipital condyle, of two supraorbital horn cores of about twenty-two centimetres length. The right horn is attached to a part of the prefrontal. Marsh later referred two
squamosal The squamosal is a skull bone found in most reptiles, amphibians, and birds. In fishes, it is also called the pterotic bone. In most tetrapods, the squamosal and quadratojugal bones form the cheek series of the skull. The bone forms an ancestral co ...
s to the species, specimens USNM 4802 and USNM 2415. These however are more likely
centrosaurine Centrosaurinae (from the Greek, meaning "pointed lizards") is a subfamily of ceratopsid dinosaurs, a group of large quadrupedal ornithischians. Centrosaurine fossil remains are known primarily from the northern region of Laramidia (modern day A ...
; they have also been referred to ''
Avaceratops ''Avaceratops'' is a genus of small herbivorous ceratopsian dinosaurs which lived during the late Campanian during the Late Cretaceous Period in what are now the Northwest United States. Most fossils come from the Judith River Formation. Discov ...
''. In 1906
Richard Swann Lull Richard Swann Lull (November 6, 1867 – April 22, 1957) was an American paleontologist and Sterling Professor at Yale University who is largely remembered now for championing a non-Darwinian view of evolution, whereby mutation(s) could ...
noted that the name ''Ceratops'' had been preoccupied by a bird, ''Ceratops'' Rafinesque 1815, but also that this had been an undescribed ''
nomen nudum In taxonomy, a ''nomen nudum'' ('naked name'; plural ''nomina nuda'') is a designation which looks exactly like a scientific name of an organism, and may have originally been intended to be one, but it has not been published with an adequate desc ...
'', causing the name to have been still available in 1888. He nevertheless provisionally proposed a replacement name: ''Proceratops''. This is thus a
junior synonym The Botanical and Zoological Codes of nomenclature treat the concept of synonymy differently. * In botanical nomenclature, a synonym is a scientific name that applies to a taxon that (now) goes by a different scientific name. For example, Linn ...
of ''Ceratops''. Already in the early twentieth century new finds made it increasingly difficult to distinguish the limited remains of ''Ceratops'' from several other related forms. Today, ''Ceratops'' is considered a ''nomen dubium''. However, from time to time claims are made about discoveries that, also taking into regard their provenance, might have a provable connection with the ''Ceratops'' holotype. In 1995, David Trexler and F.G. Sweeney noted that complete material from a bonebed that had been found in
Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columb ...
could enable ''Ceratops'' to be reexamined. The site, known as the Mansfield Bonebed, belongs to the same stratigraphic level as the one that yielded the original ''Ceratops'' remains. It had initially been interpreted as containing ''
Styracosaurus ''Styracosaurus'' ( ; meaning "spiked lizard" from the Ancient Greek / "spike at the butt-end of a spear-shaft" and / "lizard") is a genus of herbivorous ceratopsian dinosaur from the Cretaceous Period (Campanian stage), about 75.5 to 74.5 ...
'', but what earlier authors considered the frill spikes of ''Styracosaurus'' turned out to be chasmosaurine orbital horns. Trexler and Sweeney pointed out that these horns closely resembled those of ''Ceratops'', and could allow the genus to be rescued as a valid name.Trexler, D. and Sweeney, F.G. (1995). "Preliminary work on a recently discovered ceratopsian (Dinosauria: Ceratopsidae) bonebed from the Judith River Formation of Montana suggests the remains are of ''Ceratops montanus'' Marsh." ''Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology'', 15(3, Suppl.): 57A. The ceratopsids in the bonebed were later referred to the genus '' Albertaceratops'', and later re-classified in their own genus, ''
Medusaceratops ''Medusaceratops'' is an extinct genus of centrosaurine ceratopsian dinosaur known from the Late Cretaceous Judith River Formation (middle Campanian stage) of Montana, northern United States. It contains a single species, ''Medusaceratops lokii'' ...
''.Ryan, Michael J.; Russell, Anthony P., and Hartman, Scott. (2010). "A New Chasmosaurine Ceratopsid from the Judith River Formation, 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. . In 1999,
Paul Penkalski Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) * Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity *Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chri ...
and
Peter Dodson Peter Dodson (born August 20, 1946) is an American paleontologist who has published many papers and written and collaborated on books about dinosaurs. An authority on Ceratopsians, he has also authored several papers and textbooks on hadrosaurs a ...
concluded that ''Ceratops'', despite being a ''
nomen dubium In binomial nomenclature, a ''nomen dubium'' (Latin for "doubtful name", plural ''nomina dubia'') is a scientific name that is of unknown or doubtful application. Zoology In case of a ''nomen dubium'' it may be impossible to determine whether a s ...
'' because the material is too meager, appeared closely related to ''
Avaceratops ''Avaceratops'' is a genus of small herbivorous ceratopsian dinosaurs which lived during the late Campanian during the Late Cretaceous Period in what are now the Northwest United States. Most fossils come from the Judith River Formation. Discov ...
'' which may even be a juvenile ''Ceratops''; there is not enough material to prove it.


Later species

In 1889 Marsh named a second species of ''Ceratops'': ''Ceratops horridus''. This would almost immediately in a subsequent article be renamed into ''
Triceratops ''Triceratops'' ( ; ) is a genus of herbivorous chasmosaurine ceratopsid dinosaur that first appeared during the late Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous period, about 68 million years ago in what is now North America. It is one ...
horridus''. ''Ceratops horridus'' is thus the type species of ''Triceratops''. In the same article Marsh renamed ''Bison alticornis'', his misidentification of ceratopid material for a giant
bovid The Bovidae comprise the biological family of cloven-hoofed, ruminant mammals that includes cattle, bison, buffalo, antelopes, and caprines. A member of this family is called a bovid. With 143 extant species and 300 known extinct species, t ...
, into ''Ceratops alticornis''. In 1890 Marsh renamed ''Hadrosaurus paucidens'' into ''Ceratops paucidens''; but the original assessment of Hatcher that this represented
hadrosaurid Hadrosaurids (), or duck-billed dinosaurs, are members of the ornithischian family Hadrosauridae. This group is known as the duck-billed dinosaurs for the flat duck-bill appearance of the bones in their snouts. The ornithopod family, which inclu ...
material is probably correct. In 1905 Hatcher renamed three ''Monoclonius'' species into ''Ceratops'' species: ''Monoclonius recurvicornis'' Cope 1889 became ''Ceratops recurvicornis''; ''Monoclonius belli'' Lambe 1902 was made ''Ceratops belli'' and ''Monoclonius canadensis'' Lambe 1902 was renamed ''Ceratops canadensis''. ''C. canadensis'' later was made the separate genus ''
Eoceratops ''Chasmosaurus'' ( ) is a genus of ceratopsid dinosaur from the Upper Cretaceous Period of North America. Its name means 'opening lizard', referring to the large openings (fenestrae) in its frill ( Greek ''chasma'' meaning 'opening' or 'hollo ...
'', and ''C. belli'' was made the separate genus '' Chasmosaurus''; in 1925 William King Gregory concluded that ''Ceratops'' and ''Chasmosaurus'' were identical, but this was rejected by most researchers. In 2005, remarkably well preserved cranial and postcranial elements of a
Judithian The Judithian was a North American faunal stage lasting from 83.5 to 70.6 million years ago. It overlaps with the Campanian global stage. Fauna Dinosaur faunas of the Judithian age may represent the peak of dinosaur evolution in North America. H ...
ceratopsian were discovered in
Fergus County, Montana Fergus County is a county in the U.S. state of Montana. As of the 2020 census, the population was 11,446. Its county seat is Lewistown. The county was founded in 1885 and named for James Fergus, a Montana politician who was instrumental in cr ...
. Nicknamed "Judith", preliminary examination suggested a close affinity with ''C. montanus''. The locality has been determined to be on or in close proximity to the stratigraphic layer of ''C. montanus'', and not too many miles away.Judith the Dinosaur
". Accessed 17-AUG-2013.
In 2016, the new animal was named ''
Spiclypeus ''Spiclypeus'' (meaning "spike shield") is an extinct genus of chasmosaurine ceratopsian dinosaur known from the Late Cretaceous Judith River Formation (late Campanian stage) of Montana, United States. Discovery In 2000, Bill D. Shipp, a nuclea ...
'', and the authors stated that it may be identical to ''Ceratops'', which they considered a ''nomen dubium'', or a growth stage of ''Albertaceratops''.


Species list

The naming history can be summarised in a species list. *''Ceratops montanus'' Marsh 1888: ''nomen dubium''; type species of ''Ceratops'' Marsh 1888; = ''Proceratops montanus'' (Marsh 1888) Lull 1906 *''Ceratops horridus'' Marsh 1889: = ''
Triceratops ''Triceratops'' ( ; ) is a genus of herbivorous chasmosaurine ceratopsid dinosaur that first appeared during the late Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous period, about 68 million years ago in what is now North America. It is one ...
horridus'' (Marsh 1889) Marsh 1889 *''Ceratops alticornis'' (Marsh 1887) Marsh 1889: ''nomen dubium''; = ''Bison alticornis'' Marsh 1887, = ''Triceratops alticornis'' (Marsh 1887) Lull vide Hatcher, Marsh & Lull 1907 *''Ceratops paucidens'' (Marsh 1889) Marsh 1890: ''nomen dubium''; = ''Hadrosaurus paucidens'' Marsh 1889; perhaps material of '' Lambeosaurus lambei'' *''Ceratops belli'' (Lambe 1902) Hatcher vide Stanton & Hatcher 1905: = ''Monoclonius belli'' Lambe 1902; = '' Chasmosaurus belli'' (Lambe 1902) Lambe 1914 *''Ceratops canadensis'' (Lambe 1902) Hatcher vide Stanton & Hatcher 1905: = ''Monoclonius canadensis'' Lambe 1902; = ''
Eoceratops ''Chasmosaurus'' ( ) is a genus of ceratopsid dinosaur from the Upper Cretaceous Period of North America. Its name means 'opening lizard', referring to the large openings (fenestrae) in its frill ( Greek ''chasma'' meaning 'opening' or 'hollo ...
canadensis'' (Lambe 1902) Lambe 1915 *''Ceratops recurvicornis'' (Cope 1889) Hatcher vide Stanton & Hatcher 1905: = ''Monoclonius recurvicornis'' Cope 1889


Classification

''Ceratops'' was placed by Marsh in the Ceratopsidae in 1888. It thus belonged to the Ceratopsia, a group of herbivorous dinosaurs with
parrot Parrots, also known as psittacines (), are birds of the roughly 398 species in 92 genera comprising the order Psittaciformes (), found mostly in tropical and subtropical regions. The order is subdivided into three superfamilies: the Psittacoide ...
-like beaks which thrived in
North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and th ...
and
Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...
during the Late
Cretaceous Period The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of t ...
, which ended roughly 66 million years ago. In 1919 the group Ceratopsinae was named by Othenio Lothar Franz Anton Louis Abel,Abel, O.L.F.A.L., 1919, ''Die Stämme der Wirbeltiere'', Berlin und Leipzig : W. de Gruyter, 914 pp but this concept is problematic:
Paul Sereno Paul Callistus Sereno (born October 11, 1957) is a professor of paleontology at the University of Chicago and a National Geographic "explorer-in-residence" who has discovered several new dinosaur species on several continents, including at si ...
has defined it as equivalent to the
Chasmosaurinae Chasmosaurinae is a subfamily of ceratopsid dinosaurs. They were one of the most successful groups of herbivores of their time. Chasmosaurines appeared in the early Campanian, and became extinct, along with all other non-avian dinosaurs, durin ...
but other researchers limit it to ''Ceratops'' itself as its direct relationships are uncertain.


Diet

''Ceratops'', like all ceratopsians, was a
herbivore A herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically adapted to eating plant material, for example foliage or marine algae, for the main component of its diet. As a result of their plant diet, herbivorous animals typically have mouthpar ...
biting off plant material with its beak and processing it with its tooth batteries.


See also

*
Timeline of ceratopsian research This timeline of ceratopsian research is a chronological listing of events in the history of paleontology focused on the ceratopsians, a group of herbivorous marginocephalian dinosaurs that evolved parrot-like beaks, bony frills, and, later, s ...


References


External links

* https://web.archive.org/web/20090531083004/http://www.dinosaurvalley.com/Visiting_Drumheller/Kids_Zone/Groups_of_Dinosaurs/index.php {{Taxonbar, from=Q134704 Ceratopsids Late Cretaceous dinosaurs of North America Nomina dubia Fossil taxa described in 1888 Taxa named by Othniel Charles Marsh Paleontology in Montana Campanian genus first appearances Campanian genus extinctions Ornithischian genera