In the Late Cretaceous period, a remarkable flowering of horned dinosaurs occurred along the coastal floodplains of western North America.
Two different families — each sporting every imaginable combination of spikes, horns and frills — diversified across the landscape, using their headgear to signal mates and challenge rivals.
Seventy-eight million years later, members of that ancient profusion are still turning up, leading to a modern boom in discoveries.
The researchers argue that this is a new species, and with others like it suggest that the area from Mexico to Alaska was full of pockets of local dinosaur biodiversity.
The skull of the dinosaur in question was discovered in 2019 by a commercial paleontologist on private land in northern Montana.
Organizations:
Museum
Locations:
North America, Mexico, Alaska, Montana, Maribo, Denmark