Episode 316 is all about Xenoceratops, a centrosaurine ceratopsid that lived in the Late Cretaceous in what is now Alberta, Canada.

We also interview Taylor McCoy, creator of the website Everything Dinosaurs. He was one of our first ever guests on the show and returns to talk about Tyrannosaurs, the Carnegie museum, a spot in Pennsylvania to go fossil hunting, and much more.

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In this episode, we discuss:

News:

• A sauropod leg bone was found with dozens of worm-like microorganisms fossilized inside source
• A new mamenchisaurid was found in China source
• Derby Kansas is having a “Holly Jolly Jurassic Holiday” event source

The dinosaur of the day: Xenoceratops

• Centrosaurine ceratopsid that lived in the Late Cretaceous in what is now Alberta, Canada (Foremost Formation)
• Herbivorous
• Probably had a parrot-like or turtle-like beak
• Estimated to be about 20 ft (6 m) long (hard to know for sure based on fossils currently found) and weighed about 2 tons
• Had a large frill
• Had two thick knobs that projected out the middle of the frill (on the top). Next to each knob was a long spike that pointed outwards and back
• No bumps or other ornamentation in the midline of the frill
• Probably had nasal and brow horns like other centrosaurines
• Possibly had large brow horns (based on a specimen housed at the Royal Tyrrell that hasn’t been officially described, but possibly belongs to Xenoceratops)
• Probably had a long, low, nasal bone, similar to Medusaceratops, based on the fragment found
• Type and only species: Xenoceratops foremostensis
• Fossils found in 1958 by Wann Langston, Jr., who found skull fragments near Foremost, Alberta, Canada
• Fossils found in a bone bed (described as a low diversity bone bed)
• Fragments stored at the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa, and then in 2003 David Evans and Michael Ryan started looking at the fossils (one was a spike, the other an unusually large socket), and analyzed them more thoroughly in 2009
• Not many dinosaurs known from the formation (mostly teeth, some hadrosaur skeletons and pachycephalosaurid Colepiocephale)
• Described by Michael Ryan, Dave Evans, and Kieran Shepherd in 2012
• In 2012, it was the oldest known ceratopsid from Canada, and it’s the first ceratopsian described from the Foremost Formation
• Genus name means “alien horned face”
• Genus name refers to the lack of ceratopsians known from the Foremost Formation
• Species name is in honor of the town Foremost, in Alberta, Canada
• Holotype is a partial parietal (side of the skull)
• Other skull bones, including horn and frill material, have been found, from at least three adult individuals. And there’s a fragmentary skull at the Royal Tyrrell Museum that may be Xenoceratops
• Specimens included “hundreds of unidentifiable small fragments”. According to the authors, identifiable pieces are usually larger than 20 mm
• Thought to be a centrosaurine because of the squamosal (centrosaurines had large nasal horns and ornamental frills)
• Not many identifiable fossil material found in the Foremost Formation because of the limited amount of exposure, but based on microvertebrate localities and known dinosaurs in the area, the dinosaurs in Foremost Formation were probably similar to those in the Oldman and Dinosaur Park formations, but more basal
• Michael Ryan said the discovery of Xenoceratops shows how much more there is to learn about the origins of ceratopsids
• Possible the size of the horns were for recognition and to attract mates (theory). Michael Ryan said in EarthSky, “Xenoceratops shows us that even the geologically oldest ceratopsids had massive spikes on their head shields and that their cranial ornamentation would only become more elaborate as new species evolved.”
• Michael Ryan and Dave Evans are leading the Southern Alberta Dinosaur Project, to learn more about Late Cretaceous dinosaurs and how they evolved
• Can see Xenoceratops on a silver coin made by The Royal Canadian Mint (currently not available to buy) but looks cool

Fun Fact: Certain species of turtles can breathe through their cloaca.