New ceratopsian from Montana, Aquilops americanus

[Patrx]

Aquilops americanus! Check it out:


Post on Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs
The paper by Andrew Farke et. al.

Also, I know I'm not the only one who thinks we need more figures of little dinosaurs like this! 

[amargasaurus cazaui]

An American dinosaur similar to Aracheoceratops, and Psittacosaurus as well....yay !!! I can hardly wait for someone in the toy industry to model this one, but I will likely have to, since the dinosaur was so small . Still some great timing to coincide with a model herd of Aracheoceratops I have Martin painting away at. Amazing little dinosaur, I hope all these artists so keen on modeling more derived ceratopsians at least notice it. Thanks for shrng Patrx, I was already reading the article and paper and headed over here to make sure it was posted.

[Takama]

Love this drawing

[Gwangi]

That's a very cool looking little dinosaur! And somehow I knew Amarga would be all over this thread! 

[spinosaurus1]

man, even when t is near the end of 2014, the year still refuses to stop giving us new and amazing discoveries.

[amargasaurus cazaui]

That's a very cool looking little dinosaur! And somehow I knew Amarga would be all over this thread! 

Lol glad I dint let you down Gwangi, at least I am consistent. I admit I am fond of these basal ceratopsians and find them fascinating. People always like to say you do not have proof of evoloution and that we are missing all the intermediaries in the fossil record, but then there are dinosaurs like this little fellow that beg to differ. Just a fascinating little guy.

[Gwangi]

That's a very cool looking little dinosaur! And somehow I knew Amarga would be all over this thread! 

Lol glad I dint let you down Gwangi, at least I am consistent. I admit I am fond of these basal ceratopsians and find them fascinating. People always like to say you do not have proof of evoloution and that we are missing all the intermediaries in the fossil record, but then there are dinosaurs like this little fellow that beg to differ. Just a fascinating little guy.

I agree, the evolution of all the dinosaur lineages no matter how derived they ultimately become have a great fossil record of their evolution from basal forms that are really quite similar to each other. Although Tyrannosaurus and Apatosaurus look nothing alike it is so easy to look further back in prehistory and find their common ancestors. Or in the case of ceratopsians their relationship to pachycephalosaurs and ornithopods. We have a great fossil record for dinosaur evolution, it's one reason I find them so interesting and dinosaurs as a whole are great for validating the theory and demonstrating changes through deep time. And that's one reason dinosaurs are a great tool for educating children.

[Alexxitator]

I was so thrilled when I found out about this little guy. Even more so when I thought I was the first one in the forums to find out about it. How wrong I was lol
Here's the link to the newsitem I found, but it's contents are pretty much the same as the above I believe.

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2014/12/10/tiny-fossil-is-north-americas-oldest-and-cutest-horned-dinosaur/

[Chad]

http://www.palaeocast.com/episode-38-ceratopsians/

A podcast about this little guy.

[triceratops83]

The Cloverly Formation just got a lot more interesting. Early Cretaceous North America? Ceratopsians sure got around.

[amargasaurus cazaui]

Early Cretaceous ceratopsians are not that surprising if they radiated from Asia as suggested, in three waves....important to remember Yinlong Downsi from China dates to the mid to late Jurassic and was a ceratopsian as well.These are dinosaurs that go way back in the timeline and spread all over the place in waves. Psittacosaurus itself was estimated to exist from 125 to 90 million years ago as well.

[triceratops83]

Oh yeah, it just changes the way you think about an ecosystem you thought you were familiar with. I'd like to think that Deinonychus got a few bitten toes thanks to this little guy.