Vagaceratops

Vagaceratops (meaning "wandering (vagus, Latin) horned face", in reference to its close relationship with Kosmoceratops from Utah) is a genus of herbivorous ceratopsian dinosaur. It is a chasmosaurine ceratopsian which lived during the Late Cretaceous period (late Campanian) in what is now Alberta. Its fossils have been recovered from the Upper Dinosaur Park Formation.[1]

Vagaceratops
Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, 75 Ma
↓
Cast of the holotype skull, Canadian Museum of Nature
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Order: †Ornithischia
Family: †Ceratopsidae
Subfamily: †Chasmosaurinae
Genus: †Vagaceratops
Sampson et al., 2010
Species:
†V. irvinensis
Binomial name
†Vagaceratops irvinensis
(Holmes et al., 2001 [originally Chasmosaurus])
Synonyms

Description
Life restoration

Vagaceratops is known primarily from three fossil skulls. Although the general structure was typical of ceratopsids (i.e. a parrot-like beak, large neck frill, and nasal horn) it has some peculiarities. The skulls are characterized by a reduced supraorbital horn, brow horns that are reduced to low bosses and a larger snout compared to related animals. Vagaceratops had smaller parietal fenestrae than most ceratopsids and had a strange configuration of epoccipitals (bones surrounding the frill). It possessed ten epoccipitals, eight of which were centrally flattened, curved forward and upward and fused together to form a jagged margin along the back of the frill. The frill was shorter and more square-shaped than other chasmosaurines, being wider than it was long.

Classification
Holotype skeleton, CMN
Model at CMN

Vagaceratops was named by Scott D. Sampson, Mark A. Loewen, Andrew A. Farke, Eric M. Roberts, Catherine A. Forster, Joshua A. Smith, and Alan L. Titus in 2010, and the type species is Vagaceratops irvinensis.[1] This species was originally described as a species of Chasmosaurus (C. irvinensis) in 2001.[2] Its relationships remain debated. Vagaceratops has variously been allied with Kosmoceratops[1] or with Chasmosaurus.[3][2]

The cladogram below is the phylogeny of the Chasmosaurinae by Brown et al (2015):[4]

Ceratopsidae
 

Centrosaurinae

 
Chasmosaurinae
 
 

Vagaceratops irvinensis

 
 

Kosmoceratops richardsoni

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Chasmosaurus belli

 
 

Chasmosaurus russeli

 
 
 

Mojoceratops perifania

 
 
 

Agujaceratops mariscalensis

 
 
 
 

Utahceratops gettyi

 
 

Pentaceratops sternbergii

 
 
 
 
 

Bravoceratops polyphemus

 
 

Coahuilaceratops magnacuerna

 
 
 
 
 
 

Anchiceratops ornatus

 
 

Arrhinoceratops brachyops

 
 
Triceratopsini
 

Regaliceratops peterhewsi

 
 

Eotriceratops xerinsularis

 
 

Ojoceratops fowleri

 
 
 

Titanoceratops ouranos

 
 
 

Nedoceratops hatcheri

 
 
 
 

Torosaurus latus

 
 

Torosaurus utahensis

 
 
 
 

Triceratops horridus

 
 

Triceratops prorsus

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

See also

References
  1. Scott D. Sampson, Mark A. Loewen, Andrew A. Farke, Eric M. Roberts, Catherine A. Forster, Joshua A. Smith, and Alan L. Titus (2010). "New Horned Dinosaurs from Utah Provide Evidence for Intracontinental Dinosaur Endemism". PLoS ONE. 5 (9): e12292. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0012292. PMC 2929175. PMID 20877459.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. R. B. Holmes, C. A. Forster, M. J. Ryan and K. M. Shepherd (2001). "A new species of Chasmosaurus (Dinosauria: Ceratopsia) from the Dinosaur Park Formation of southern Alberta". Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences. 38 (10): 1423–1438. doi:10.1139/cjes-38-10-1423.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. Longrich, N.R., 2011. Titanoceratops ouranos, a giant horned dinosaur from the Late Campanian of New Mexico. Cretaceous Research 32, 264-276.
  4. Brown, Caleb M.; Henderson, Donald M. (June 4, 2015). "A new horned dinosaur reveals convergent evolution in cranial ornamentation in ceratopsidae". Current Biology. 25 (online): 1641–8. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2015.04.041. PMID 26051892.


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