SALT LAKE CITY, UT – The dinosaur family just got some new additions!
Scientists revealed on Wednesday that they’ve discovered fossils in the southern Utah desert of two new dinosaur species closely related to the Triceratops, including one with 15 horns on its large head.
The discovery of the new plant-eating species – including Kosmoceratops richardsoni, considered the most ornate-headed dinosaur known to man – was reported Wednesday in the online scientific journal PLoS ONE, produced by the Public Library of Science.
The other dinosaur, which has five horns and is the larger of the two, was dubbed Utahceratops gettyi.
“It’s not every day that you find two rhino-sized dinosaurs that are different from all the other dinosaurs found in North America,” said Mark Loewen, a Utah Museum of Natural History paleontologist and an author of the paper published.
“You would think that we know everything there is to know about the dinosaurs of western North America, but every year we’re finding new things, especially here in Utah,” he added.
The Utahceratops has a large horn over the nose and short eye horns that project to the side rather than upward, similar to a bison. Its skull is about 7 feet long, it stood about 6 feet high and was 18 to 22 feet long. It is believed to have weighed about 3 to 4 tons.
The Kosmoceratops has similar facial features as the Utahceratops, but has 10 horns across the rear margin of it bony frill that point downward and outward. It weighed about 2.5 tons and was about 15 feet long.
There are so many new discoveries in the planet and the above two are just examples. Nature is an amazing designer and she is also cool.
I wonder if they can be cloned or something.
I hope not.
I heard the bones were stolen by Dr. Michael Heinous.