Hellboy, a new full horned dinosaur – lanacion.com (Argentina)

MADRID (EFE) .- Its scientific name is “Regaliceratops peterhewsi” but paleontologists have discovered nicknamed him “Hellboy”. It is a new type of horned dinosaur that lived 70 million years ago and whose most distinctive feature is a kind of ruff it has on 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 is named) who found some bones protruding from a cliff into the Oldman River southeast of Alberta (Canada).

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

“The specimen comes from the geographical region of Alberta, had not found horned dinosaurs in advance, so, from the beginning we knew it was important, “said Brown of the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology in the Canadian city.

The skull of this new dinosaur, similar in many respects to Triceratops, was located in Alberta, Canada. Photo: Reuters

The co-authors of the study, Brown and Donald Henderson, named the new dinosaur as “Regaliceratops peterhewsi” referring to the kind of ruff or flyer and 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 twice the first time they saw in the laboratory you 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 was distinctive this dinosaur was the size and aspect of their facial horns and frill, like a shield, in the back of the skull.

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

But the most distinctive feature is the ornament of the neck, which Brown described as a halo of large pentagonal plates projecting outwardly and with 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 in the evolution 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, and Centrosaurus, which they are characterized for a long horn on the nose, two small eyes and a small ruff.

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

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

The researchers hope to find new specimens 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 finding also suggests that there may be more horned dinosaurs but do not yet have found them, so Brown pointed find other new species.” .