Your Daily Fossil

Styracosaurus

Both mounted specimens on display at the American Museum of Natural History, NYC

When: Late Cretaceous (~75 Million years ago)

Where: North America, most fossils known from Alberta and Montana. 

What: Styracosaurus is a ceratopsian dinosaur. It is easly distinquished from its more famous relative Triceratops as it lacks the two large brow horns, instead having four to six spike-horns extending from its fenestrated frill. It is also a bit smaller than this giant ceratopsian ‘only’ reaching lengths of 18 feet (~5.5 meters). Styracosaurus material was first collected by the great fossil collector C.M. Sternberg in 1913, from what is now Dinosaur Provincial Park in Alberta, Canada. This area proved to be a treasure trove of Styracosaurs material and has been visited by fossil collectors repeatly over the decades. The large amount of material of this one dinosaur has supports the conclusion that Styracosaurs traveled in herds, as has been proposed for other ceratopsians. 

Ceratopsians appear to have originated in Asia in the Jurassic period, but it was after the migration of members of the clade to North America that they greatly increased in size and developed the large neck frills and skull ornamentation the group is famous for. There has been much debate as to the purpose of the horns and frills. The modern consensus is that they functioned for defense from predators, combat between individuals, and for species identification for mating.