Outline: a typical ceratopsian
Spinops
"spine face"
Type species Spinops sternbergorum
- Lived
- 84 to 72 million years ago, Late Cretaceous
- Diet
- Herbivore
- Group
- Ceratopsians, Ceratopsidae
- Found in
- Canada
- Named by
- Farke et al. 2011
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
80 million years ago
Field notes
About Spinops
What it was like
Spinops was a horned plant eater from the centrosaurine group, relatives of Centrosaurus and Styracosaurus. It had a large nose horn and long spikes and hooks on its frill.
Its world
It lived in the Late Cretaceous in what is now Alberta, Canada, alongside the tyrannosaur Daspletosaurus.
How it was found
Its bones were collected long ago by a family of fossil hunters and lay in a museum for decades. Farke and colleagues named it in 2011. The type species is Spinops sternbergorum.
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
Close relatives
Other members of Ceratopsidae
Sources: WikidataNamed in: A. A. Farke, M. J. Ryan, and P. M. Barrett, D. H. Tanke, D. R. Braman, M. A. Loewen, M. R. Graham. 2011. A new centrosaurine from the Late Cretaceous of Alberta, Canada, and the evolution of parietal ornamentation in horned dinosaurs. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 56(4):691-702