Outline: a typical ceratopsian
Stellasaurus
"star lizard"
Type species Stellasaurus ancellae
- Lived
- 84 to 72 million years ago, Late Cretaceous
- Diet
- Herbivore
- Group
- Ceratopsians, Ceratopsidae
- Found in
- United States
- Named by
- Wilson et al. 2020
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
80 million years ago
Field notes
About Stellasaurus
What it was like
Stellasaurus was a horned dinosaur with a long, straight horn on its nose and long spikes spreading from its frill, which gave its head a starburst shape.
It seems to be a middle step between Styracosaurus, with its long nose horn and spiky frill, and Achelousaurus, which had a bony pad instead of a horn.
Its world
It lived in the Late Cretaceous in what is now Montana, in the United States. Its bones come from the Two Medicine Formation, where it shared the land with Achelousaurus, the duck-billed Maiasaura and the tyrannosaur Daspletosaurus.
How it was found
Wilson and colleagues named Stellasaurus in 2020, from a single find.
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
Close relatives
Other members of Ceratopsidae
Sources: WikidataNamed in: J. P. Wilson, M. J. Ryan, and D. C. Evans. 2020. A new, transitional centrosaurine ceratopsid from the Upper Cretaceous Two Medicine Formation of Montana and the evolution of the 'Styracosaurus-line' dinosaurs. Royal Society Open Science 7:200284