Bisticeratops, a new chasmosaurine ceratopsid from New Mexico

[VD231991]

A new ceratopsid-related paper has come hot off the press:

Dalman, S.G., Jasinski, S.E., and Lucas, S.G., 2022. A new chasmosaurine ceratopsid from the Upper Cretaceous (Campanian) Farmington Member of the Kirtland Formation, New Mexico. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin 90: 127–153. (PDF available here)

If you are probably aware, when the paper describing Sierraceratops was submitted last year, the cladogram for the phylogenetic analysis of this taxon inadvertedly referred to NMMNH P-50000 as Bisticeratops, but the publisher tacitly replaced the name with the specimen number for the Bisticeratops froesorum holotype because the paper describing Bisticeratops froesorum had yet to be published. Even though the cladistic analysis of Bisticeratops by Dalman et al. uses a partially outdated matrix, it should be noted that AMNH 3652 from the Almond Formation (previously referred to Anchiceratops) is recovered as a sister taxon of Bisticeratops froesorum, so it is possible that the Almond Formation chasmosaurine could be a new species of Bisticeratops and that a few chasmosaurine genera from the American Southwest had a semi-provincial distribution in Laramidia. Given that the specimens NMMNH P-27468 and SMP VP-1500 were originally referred to Pentaceratops but are now the holotypes of the distinct taxa Terminocavus sealeyi and Navajoceratops sullivani, and Fowler and Freedman-Fowler's (2020) assesses "Pentaceratops" fenestratus as a chasmosaurine of uncertain placement yet distinct from P. sternbergii, the description of Bisticeratops raises the number of chasmosaurine taxa from the San Juan Basin of New Mexico to six (Pentaceratops, Titanoceratops, Bisticeratops, Navajoceratops, Terminocavus, and "Pentaceratops" sternbergii), along with one unnamed chasmosaurine taxon (NNMNH P-33906) mentioned by Fowler and Freedman-Fowler (2020).

Fowler, D. W., and Freedman-Fowler, E. A., 2020, Transitional evolutionary forms in chasmosaurine ceratopsid dinosaurs: evidence from the Campanian of New Mexico: PeerJ 8:e9251 DOI 10.7717/peerj.9251: 49pp.

[Pliosaurking]

Another cool genus of ceratopsian
It's seems this individual also came into contact with a tyrannosaur at some point in its life, and based on healing of some of the bite marks it may have overcame its attacker!