Open Paleo

Bisticeratops

Dalman et al., 2022 BISS-tih-SEH-ruh-tops

From Bisti (the Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness area in New Mexico, where fossils were found; from Navajo bistahi meaning 'among the adobe formations') + Greek keras (κέρας) meaning 'horn' + ops (ὤψ) meaning 'face'; overall meaning 'Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness horned face'.

83.6–72.2 million years ago Campanian, Late Cretaceous
Late Cretaceous stages

Bisticeratops is a genus of chasmosaurine ceratopsian from outcrops of the Campanian age Kirtland Formation found in the Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness in northwestern New Mexico, United States. The type and only species is B. froeseorum, known from a nearly complete skull.

Diagnosis

  1. Snout in lateral view has a characteristic stepped margin (absent in Pentaceratops sternbergi).
  2. Premaxilla with deeply inserted narrow sulcus located between the base of the triangular process and the posteroventral process.
  3. Posterior end of the posteroventral process of the premaxilla with two distinct projections separated by a deep notch; dorsal projection narrow and peg-like, ventral projection transversely expanded and flange-like.
  4. Maxilla with a strongly reduced jugal process and absence of pocket-like fossa between the ventral jugal process on the lateral surface.
  5. Maxilla with two small antorbital fenestrae and lateral surface bearing two elongated, low ridges paralleling each other beneath the antorbital fenestra.
  6. Postorbital horncore strongly anteriorly-curved.

Species

Bisticeratops froeseorum Dalman et al., 2022

Type species

Named for Edgar Froese, founder of the band Tangerine Dream, and Edgar's son Jerome, former member of Tangerine Dream and founder of the band Loom, whose music inspired the describers.

Holotype
NMMNH P-50000 , New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science
Material
Nearly complete skull, missing the parietal, left squamosal, postorbital horncores (only cast of right postorbital horncore preserved), left jugal, left quadrate, predentary, and both dentaries.
Horizon
upper Farmington Member, Kirtland Formation, Campanian, Late Cretaceous , 83.6–72.2 million years ago
Locality
NMMNH locality 6258, New Mexico, United States

References

  1. Dalman, S. G.; Jasinski, S. E.; Lucas, S. G. (2022). A new chasmosaurine ceratopsid from the Upper Cretaceous (Campanian) Farmington Member of the Kirtland Formation, New Mexico. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin 90: 127-153. dalman2022a
  2. Jones, B. (2026). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs: Ornithischians. Princeton University Press.

    Source of the body length estimate.

    jones2026a