Styracosaurus
Styracosaurus albertensis
Styracosaurus is one of the most striking examples of the enormous variety of horns and frills among ceratopsians.
Image: LittleLazyLass · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
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Characteristics
- Scientific name
- Styracosaurus albertensis
- Period
- Late Cretaceous (Campanian)
- Lived
- 75.5–75 Ma (75.5 million years ago)
- Diet
- Herbivore
- Habitat
- Plains, Forest
- Length (estimate)
- 5.5 m
- Mass (estimate)
- 2,700 kg
- Discovered/described
- 1913 · Charles M. Sternberg
Description
Styracosaurus was a ceratopsian with a nose horn possibly up to 60 centimetres long and four to six long spikes along the edge of its neck frill. It ate tough plants with a parrot-like beak and shearing teeth. What the horns and frill were for – display, recognition or defence – has long been debated.
Habitat
Coastal plains with rivers on the western shore of North America's inland sea.
Fossil sites
Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta
Dinosaur Park Formation
Cultural profile: Canada →
Contemporaries in the database
Sources: Styracosaurus