Judging by the remains of an animal called Machairoceratops cronusi, its length was about 8 meters, and its weight was two tons. Apparently, the dinosaur was a herbivore. Fragments of the skeleton were first discovered 10 years ago in an area replete with the remains of other dinosaurs - the centrosaurines, which roamed the plains of North America and Asia 77 million years ago, at the end of the Cretaceous.
Artists managed to reconstruct the appearance of makherceratops. The figures clearly show the powerful bone shield, which is connected to the skull of the animal. In an article published in the journal PLOS ONE, scientists write: "The remains found include long curved horns and an almost complete, but slightly deformed skull."
Dinosaur found an international team of scientists engaged in paleontological and geological research in the State Reserve Grand Staerkas-Escalant, which is located in the south of the US state of Utah.
The history of the discovery of maheroceratops is a good example of how long the path of discovery to official recognition can be.
“The first fragments of the skeleton were found on the surface in 2006, however, the excavations were completed only during additional field seasons in 2007–2009. Laboratory research took another two years, ”says Patrick O'Connor, a professor at the college of osteopathic medicine.
Professional paleontologists and volunteers from the University of Ohio and the Museum of Natural History of Utah extracted horns and some other parts of the skull from the ground.
“It's amazing that even in western North America, where a person has been conducting intensive economic activity for at least 150 years, you can still find fossils of unknown species,” said O'Connor.
Last Wednesday, along with makherceratops, one more of the recently discovered dinosaurs was officially registered - Spiclypeus shipporum, or needle shield, found 10 years ago by an amateur paleontologist in Montana.
Discoveries of dinosaurs unknown to science continue with enviable regularity. So, only in 2015, scientists discovered 9 new species.
The article is based on materials .
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