‘Hellboy’ is the new unconventional dinosaur including … – Trade

Its scientific name is Regaliceratops peterhewsi , but paleontologists have discovered is nicknamed ‘Hellboy’. is a new type Dinosaur with Horned that lived about 70 million years ago and whose most distinctive feature is a sort of frill which is in the neck, shaped like a crown.

The skull of this new Dinosaur, similar in many respects to Triceratops , was found ten years ago by a man Peter Hewes (in whose honor named) who found some bones protruding from a cliff into the Oldman River southeast of Alberta (Canada).

Now, paleontologists Caleb Brown and Donald Henderson have debuted in an article published this June 4 Current Biology Cell Press.

“The specimen comes geographic region of Alberta, where there were present horned dinosaurs in advance, so, from the beginning we knew it was important, “he said Brown Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology in the Canadian city.

The co-authors of the study, Brown and Donald Henderson , named the new dinosaur as Regaliceratops peterhewsi, referring to the kind of ruff or wheel and the man which reported its existence the museum.

“Obviously it was a new species, unexpectedly, many researchers in horned dinosaurs who visited the museum looked at him twice on the laboratory could say it was a new species just by looking at it a hundred meters “” , Brown, who recalled that his uniqueness is so obvious that said “.

What it was distinctive this dinosaur was the size and appearance of your facial horns and the ruff, like a shield, in the back of the skull.

new species is similar in many respects to the Triceratops, except that his nasal horn is highest, while the two smaller over his eyes are “almost ridiculously small”.

But the most distinctive feature is the Christmas neck , which Brown described as a halo of large pentagonal plates projecting outwards and a central peak, the result of these elements will have the appearance of a crown, “he said.

The most important thing in this issue is, according to the study authors, the implications on the consumer of ornamental horns dinosaurs.

Traditionally horned dinosaurs are divided into two groups Chasmosaurus , with a small horn on the head, larger ones over the eyes and a long frill. In addition, the Centrosaurus is characterized by a large horn over the nose, two small eyes and a small ruff.

This new species is a Chasmosaurus, but its ornamentation more like a Centrosaurio, and lived after species Centrosaurus, Brown said.

All I joined this new specimen is the first example of evolutionary convergence between horned dinosaurs, which means that these two groups evolved independently with similar characteristics.

The researchers hope to find new specimens of Regaliceratops peterhewsi, while working in the digital reconstruction of the skull found, because although it is intact, the fossil has been deformed after spending 70 million years in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.

“This Discovery also suggests that there may be more horned dinosaurs but we have not yet found, so he pointed Brown find other new species “.