Yehuecauhceratops
"ancient horned face"
Type species Yehuecauhceratops mudei
- Lived
- 84 to 72 million years ago, Late Cretaceous
- Diet
- Herbivore
- Group
- Ceratopsians, Ceratopsidae
- Found in
- Mexico
- Named by
- Rivera-Sylva et al. 2017
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
80 million years ago
Habitat
Its home was a coastal plain with river channels, marshes and abandoned river bends. Agujaceratops, Kritosaurus and Saurornitholestes lived in the wider Aguja Formation landscape.
Field notes
About Yehuecauhceratops
What it was like
Yehuecauhceratops was a small horned plant eater from the centrosaurine group, relatives of Centrosaurus. It is known from parts of two skeletons, including pieces of the frill.
Its world
It lived in the Late Cretaceous in what is now Mexico. Its bones come from the Aguja Formation, a coastal land shared with the horned Agujaceratops and the duckbill Kritosaurus.
How it was found
Rivera-Sylva and colleagues named it in 2017. The type species is Yehuecauhceratops mudei. The first part of the name comes from an old language of Mexico.
Field gallery
More views of Yehuecauhceratops
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 Yehuecauhceratops.
The evidence
The science behind Yehuecauhceratops
Which parts of the picture come from its own bones, and which come from its relatives.
From its own fossils
- The partial skeleton includes frill bones, part of the lower jaw, a shoulder blade, a thighbone and a back vertebra.
- A short ridge on the side of the frill carries a rough bony knob.
- The jaw fragment preserves replacement teeth growing beneath the working teeth.
Borrowed from relatives
- Avaceratops and Nasutoceratops provide comparisons for the missing parts of its skull and frill.
- The rest of the body follows the general four-legged build of other horned dinosaurs.
Still unknown
- The size and shape of its facial horns.
- The complete outline of its frill.
- Its skin color.
Discovery timeline
- 2013Close relativeSampson et al.
- 2016Full descriptionRivera-Sylva, Hedrick & Dodson
- 2017Named itRivera-Sylva et al.
Key papers
The research behind what we know of Yehuecauhceratops
Close relative
Described Nasutoceratops, a comparison for the skull anatomy and family relationships of Yehuecauhceratops.
A remarkable short-snouted horned dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous (late Campanian) of southern Laramidia. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 280: 20131186
Read the paper : A remarkable short-snouted horned dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous (late Campanian) of southern Laramidia (opens in a new tab)Full description
Described the bones later named Yehuecauhceratops and found similarities to Avaceratops and Nasutoceratops.
A Centrosaurine (Dinosauria: Ceratopsia) from the Aguja Formation (Late Campanian) of Northern Coahuila, Mexico. PLOS ONE 11: e0150529
Read the paper : A Centrosaurine (Dinosauria: Ceratopsia) from the Aguja Formation (Late Campanian) of Northern Coahuila, Mexico (opens in a new tab)Named it
Named Yehuecauhceratops while reviewing the diversity and regional distribution of horned dinosaurs in Mexico.
Mexican ceratopsids: Considerations on their diversity and biogeography. Journal of South American Earth Sciences 75: 66-73
Read the paper : Mexican ceratopsids: Considerations on their diversity and biogeography (opens in a new tab)
Close relatives
Other members of Ceratopsidae
Sources: Wikidata