Terminocavus
"end hole"
Type species Terminocavus sealeyi
- Lived
- 84 to 72 million years ago, Late Cretaceous
- Diet
- Herbivore
- Group
- Ceratopsians, Ceratopsidae
- Found in
- United States
- Named by
- Fowler and Freedman Fowler 2020
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
80 million years ago
Habitat
It lived on the inland plains of Laramidia, in what is now New Mexico. The Kirtland Formation also preserves Bistahieversor and Parasaurolophus.
Field notes
About Terminocavus
What it was like
Terminocavus was a horned plant eater from the chasmosaurine group, relatives of Pentaceratops. It is known from part of a frill. The frill had a small notch at the back, a step toward the solid frills of later horned dinosaurs.
Its world
It lived in the Late Cretaceous in what is now New Mexico. Its bones come from the Kirtland Formation, where it shared the land with the tyrannosaur Bistahieversor and the horned Pentaceratops.
How it was found
Fowler and Freedman Fowler named it in 2020. The type species is Terminocavus sealeyi.
Field gallery
More views of Terminocavus
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 Terminocavus.
The evidence
The science behind Terminocavus
Which parts of the picture come from its own bones, and which come from its relatives.
From its own fossils
- The main fossil is the broad bone forming the back of the skull frill, with a few associated fragments.
- The frill's rear edge has a deep, narrow notch between broad, rounded sides.
Borrowed from relatives
- The horns, beak and body are restored from better-known chasmosaurines such as Pentaceratops and Anchiceratops.
Still unknown
- The shape and length of its horns.
- Whether it was a direct ancestor of Anchiceratops.
- Its skin color.
Discovery timeline
- 2010Family treeSampson et al.
- 2011Close relativeMallon et al.
- 2020Named itFowler & Freedman Fowler
Key papers
The research behind what we know of Terminocavus
Family tree
Named Utahceratops and Kosmoceratops, placing Utahceratops close to Pentaceratops and supporting regional differences among horned dinosaurs on Laramidia.
New Horned Dinosaurs from Utah Provide Evidence for Intracontinental Dinosaur Endemism. PLoS ONE 5: e12292
Read the paper : New Horned Dinosaurs from Utah Provide Evidence for Intracontinental Dinosaur Endemism (opens in a new tab)Close relative
Compared skulls of Anchiceratops, a close relative used to understand the range of horn and frill shapes in chasmosaurines.
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)Named it
Named Terminocavus and Navajoceratops, proposing a sequence of frill changes linking Pentaceratops with 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