Anchiceratops
ANG-kee-SERR-a-tops
"near horned face"
Type species Anchiceratops ornatus
- Lived
- 84 to 66 million years ago, Late Cretaceous
- Diet
- Herbivore
- Length
- estimates range from 4.3 to 6 m (14 to 20 ft)
- Group
- Ceratopsians, Ceratopsidae
- Found in
- Canada
- Named by
- Brown 1914
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
75 million years ago
Habitat
River floodplains and coastal lowlands supported forests with conifers, flowering plants and ferns. Edmontosaurus, Saurolophus and Albertosaurus also lived in the Horseshoe Canyon Formation.
Field notes
About Anchiceratops
What it was like
Anchiceratops was a horned plant eater about 4.3 to 6 meters (14 to 20 feet) long. It had two long horns over its eyes, a short horn on its nose and a long, rectangular frill edged with bony points. Like Triceratops, it cut plants with a sharp beak.
Its world
It lived in the Late Cretaceous in what is now Alberta. Its bones come from the Horseshoe Canyon Formation, where it shared the land with the duckbills Edmontosaurus and Saurolophus and the tyrannosaur Albertosaurus.
How it was found
Brown named Anchiceratops in 1914. The type species is Anchiceratops ornatus. Several skulls are known, which show how the frill varied between individuals.
Field gallery
More views of Anchiceratops
Scenes reconstructed from the available fossil evidence.
1 of 3
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
A rock formation can hold fossils laid down millions of years apart, so not every animal here met Anchiceratops.
The evidence
The science behind Anchiceratops
Which parts of the picture come from its own bones, and which come from its relatives.
From its own fossils
- Skulls show long brow horns and a rectangular frill edged with large bony points.
- The horns and frill vary in proportion between individuals.
Borrowed from relatives
- The body is restored mainly by comparison with horned dinosaurs such as Chasmosaurus and Triceratops.
Still unknown
- Whether males and females differed in horn or frill shape.
- Its skin color and the soft covering of its frill.
- How its horns and frill changed during early growth.
Discovery timeline
- 1914Named itBrown
- 2011SkullMallon et al.
- 2020Family treeFowler & Freedman Fowler
Key papers
The research behind what we know of Anchiceratops
Named it
Named Anchiceratops from horned dinosaur skull material in Alberta, recognizing its distinctive frill ornamentation.
Anchiceratops, a new genus of horned dinosaurs from the Edmonton Cretaceous of Alberta. With discussion of the origin of the ceratopsian crest and the brain casts of Anchiceratops and Trachodon. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 33: 539-548
No link available
Skull
Compared skulls and found support for a single variable species rather than separate species or distinct male and female skull types.
Variation in the skull ofAnchiceratops(Dinosauria, Ceratopsidae) from the Horseshoe Canyon Formation (Upper Cretaceous) of Alberta. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 31: 1047-1071
Read the paper : Variation in the skull ofAnchiceratops(Dinosauria, Ceratopsidae) from the Horseshoe Canyon Formation (Upper Cretaceous) of Alberta (opens in a new tab)Family tree
Proposed that frill shapes in Navajoceratops and Terminocavus bridge an evolutionary series between Pentaceratops and Anchiceratops.
Transitional evolutionary forms in chasmosaurine ceratopsid dinosaurs: evidence from the Campanian of New Mexico. PeerJ 8: e9251
Read the paper : Transitional evolutionary forms in chasmosaurine ceratopsid dinosaurs: evidence from the Campanian of New Mexico (opens in a new tab)
Close relatives
Other members of Ceratopsidae
Sources: Wikidata