When Horned Dinosaurs Traveled East

[Simon]

Triceratops - in Mississippi?!!???

Could be:  Brian Switek explains how in the Scientific American: 

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/laelaps/when-horned-dinosaurs-traveled-east/

[Mamasaurus]

Fascinating article. Thank you for sharing! That would be really cool to find out if it really is triceratops or something completely new.  This is why I love paleontology, there's always something unexpected around the corner, even in places where paleontologists are confident they know a lot about.

[Reptilia]

Interesting reading, thanks Simon.

[Neosodon]

Have ceratopsians ever been found from Eurasia?

[Reptilia]

Yes, Psittacosaurus and Protoceratops.

[Neosodon]

Ceratopsians date back to the Jurrasic from Asia. So they should have been wide spread across all northern continents.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yinlong

Yes, Psittacosaurus and Protoceratops.

Are there any large ceratopsians from Asia? It appears that all large ceratopsians originated from Laramidia which I don't understand. Why would they stay small everywhere else except for one small continent?

[irimali]

Ceratopsians date back to the Jurrasic from Asia. So they should have been wide spread across all northern continents.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yinlong

Yes, Psittacosaurus and Protoceratops.

Are there any large ceratopsians from Asia? It appears that all large ceratopsians originated from Laramidia which I don't understand. Why would they stay small everywhere else except for one small continent?

There was sinoceratops from late cretaceous china.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinoceratops

It's only known from 3 partial skulls.  As far as I know it's the only large ceratopsian from Asia.  It's still a mystery though, why there would only be the one and it's seemingly rare.

[amargasaurus cazaui]

Ceratopsians were believed to spread into North America in at least three different radiations at various times, during stages of ceratopsian history..it is quite possible sinoceratops reverse radiated back into the Eurasian area during one of those.....a lot has to do with when the continents were and were not linked allowing said crossings according to many papers.

[Simon]

*EDIT* 

I have now figured out (thanks to some of the other members here) that the discovery I recall reading about was Sinoceratops.  So, there was at least one large ceratopsid in China at the end of the Age of Dinosaurs - that we know of.

[Newt]

Those late Cretaceous deposits in northern Mississippi and southwest Tennessee are amazing. They're marine, so not much in the way of dinosaurs, but plenty of turtles, the occasional shark or mosasaur, and gobs of beautifully preserved, non-petrified fossils of molluscs and crustaceans. Some of the banks of Coon Creek in Tennessee look like the dump behind your favorite seafood place, if that place were importing its shellfish from the ancient Mississippi Embayment.

Anyways...the dinosaur record in Appalachia (that is, North America east of the Interior Seaway) is extremely spotty compared to Laramidia. There's room for a lot of discoveries like this.

[sauroid]

great article. thanks for sharing. one of the exciting paleo news recently.

[laticauda]

At this point wouldn't it be just as possible that the body of a ceratopsian was torn apart and some of the material drifted with tide and currents and ended up on the other side of the Western Interior Seaway.

[stargatedalek]

At this point wouldn't it be just as possible that the body of a ceratopsian was torn apart and some of the material drifted with tide and currents and ended up on the other side of the Western Interior Seaway.

It's possible, but we know most derived ceratopsians were well acquainted with swimming and salt water anyway so I wouldn't say it's any more likely.

[Newt]

The find spot is a long way from the nearest part of Laramidia, in what is now Texas. In order for a Laramidian animal to end up in Mississippi the carcass would have to drift not just across the narrowest part of the seaway but then for several hundred miles along the southern coast of Appalachia. This would be the equivalent of a cow falling into the Black Sea in Romania and drifting all the way across to Georgia.