Aquilops
From Latin 'aquila' meaning 'eagle' and Greek 'ops' meaning 'face', meaning 'eagle face', referring to its eagle-like hooked beak.
Early Cretaceous stages
Aquilops is an early herbivorous ceratopsian dinosaur dating from the Early Cretaceous of North America, approximately 109 million to 104 million years ago. The type species is A. americanus.
Diagnosis
- Rostral with a ventrally-directed tip and a strongly arched keel possessing a boss
- Oral margin rostral to maxillary tooth row entirely concave in lateral view
- Antorbital fenestra more than twice as long as tall and tapering to a sharp point below the orbit
Species
Aquilops americanus Farke et al., 2014
Type species
Named for the fact that the species represents the first unequivocal very basal neoceratopsian found in America.
- Holotype
- OMNH 34557 , Oklahoma Museum of Natural History
- Material
- Partial skull with associated predentary, partial left dentary, and additional associated but unidentifiable fragments
- Horizon
- Himes Member, Cloverly Formation, Albian, Early Cretaceous , 113.2–100.5 million years ago
- Locality
- OMNH locality V1057, Montana, United States
References
- Farke, A. A.; Maxwell, W. D.; Cifelli, R. L.; Wedel, M. J. (2014). A Ceratopsian Dinosaur from the Lower Cretaceous of Western North America, and the Biogeography of Neoceratopsia. PLoS ONE 9(12): e112055. Public Library of Science (PLoS). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0112055 farke2014a
-
Jones, B. (2026). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs: Ornithischians. Princeton University Press.
Source of the hip height estimate, and the appearance features.
jones2026a