Life restoration of Ornatops incantatus. Illustration by Brian Engh – http://dontmesswithdinosaurs.com, commissioned by Western Science Center.
SciNews has an article about a new dinosaur discovery. The animal, a duck-billed dinosaur called Ornatops incantatus, lived about 80 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period in what is now modern day New Mexico. A paper in the journal PeerJ has all the details.
Its partial skeleton, including part of the skull, was found at a single locality in the Menefee Formation in San Juan County, New Mexico.
“The Menefee Formation represents one of the most promising frontiers for exploring the early evolution of major dinosaur groups in Laramidia, the Upper Cretaceous landmass consisting of Mexico, the western United States, western Canada, and Alaska,” Dr. Andrew McDonald from the Western Science Center and colleagues wrote in their paper.
“Dating to approximately 84-78 million years ago, the Menefee Formation predates the most productive Upper Cretaceous dinosaur-bearing units in western North America, such as the Kirtland Formation of New Mexico, the Kaiparowits Formation of Utah, and the Dinosaur Park Formation of Alberta.”
Ornatops incantatus is a member of Brachylophosaurini, a group of hadrosaurid dinosaurs that inhabited western North America during the Campanian age (84-72 million years ago) of the Cretaceous period.
“Features of the skull roof and braincase identify the new hadrosaurid as a member of Brachylophosaurini, one of several subclades within Saurolophinae, the ‘solid-crested’ hadrosaurids,” the paleontologists explained.
