Sierraceratops
"Sierra horned face"
Type species Sierraceratops turneri
- Lived
- 84 to 66 million years ago, Late Cretaceous
- Diet
- Herbivore
- Group
- Ceratopsians, Ceratopsidae
- Found in
- United States
- Named by
- Dalman et al. 2022
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
75 million years ago
Habitat
The Hall Lake Formation records a muddy floodplain crossed by river channels. Its dinosaur community included Tyrannosaurus, large duck-billed dinosaurs and a sauropod tentatively identified as Alamosaurus.
Field notes
About Sierraceratops
What it was like
Sierraceratops was a horned dinosaur with long, curved horns over its eyes and a big frill. It is known from part of a skull and skeleton.
It was related to Bravoceratops and other southern horned dinosaurs, which suggests that the far south of North America had its own kinds of horned dinosaurs.
Its world
It lived in the Late Cretaceous in what is now New Mexico, in the United States. Its bones come from the Hall Lake Formation.
How it was found
Dalman and colleagues named Sierraceratops in 2022. The bones had been found years earlier.
Field gallery
More views of Sierraceratops
Scenes reconstructed from the available fossil evidence.
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 Sierraceratops.
The evidence
The science behind Sierraceratops
Which parts of the picture come from its own bones, and which come from its relatives.
From its own fossils
- Part of a skull and skeleton preserves a broad frill and a long, pyramid-shaped horn on the cheek.
- The side of the frill ends in a pointed tip and carries low bony ornaments along its edge.
Borrowed from relatives
- Other horned dinosaurs such as Bravoceratops guide the restoration of missing skull parts and the four-legged body.
Still unknown
- The complete outline of its frill.
- Its skin color.
- How its horns and frill changed as it grew.
Discovery timeline
- 2013Close relativeWick & Lehman
- 2022Named itDalman et al.
- 2024Same rocksDalman et al.
Key papers
The research behind what we know of Sierraceratops
Close relative
Described Bravoceratops, a horned dinosaur later recovered as a close relative of Sierraceratops.
A new ceratopsian dinosaur from the Javelina Formation (Maastrichtian) of West Texas and implications for chasmosaurine phylogeny. Naturwissenschaften 100: 667-682
Read the paper : A new ceratopsian dinosaur from the Javelina Formation (Maastrichtian) of West Texas and implications for chasmosaurine phylogeny (opens in a new tab)Named it
Recognized a distinct horned dinosaur and linked it with Bravoceratops and Coahuilaceratops in a southern branch of the family.
Sierraceratops turneri, a new chasmosaurine ceratopsid from the Hall Lake Formation (Upper Cretaceous) of south-central New Mexico. Cretaceous Research 130: 105034
Read the paper : Sierraceratops turneri, a new chasmosaurine ceratopsid from the Hall Lake Formation (Upper Cretaceous) of south-central New Mexico (opens in a new tab)Same rocks
Named a giant Tyrannosaurus from the same formation and described the distinctive southern dinosaur community that included Sierraceratops.
A giant tyrannosaur from the Campanian–Maastrichtian of southern North America and the evolution of tyrannosaurid gigantism. Scientific Reports 14
Read the paper : A giant tyrannosaur from the Campanian–Maastrichtian of southern North America and the evolution of tyrannosaurid gigantism (opens in a new tab)
Close relatives
Other members of Ceratopsidae
Sources: Wikidata