Open Paleo

Ferenceratops

Maidment et al., 2026 feh-ren-seh-ruh-tops

From Hungarian 'Ferenc' (Francis), the birth name of paleontologist Franz Nopcsa von Felső-Szilvás (1877-1933), who first reported dinosaur remains from the Hațeg Basin, and Greek 'keras/keratos' (horn) and 'ops' (face).

72.2–66.0 million years ago Maastrichtian, Late Cretaceous
Late Cretaceous stages

Ferenceratops is an extinct genus of ceratopsian dinosaur from the Maastrichtian Sânpetru Formation of the Hațeg Basin, western Romania. The single species, Ferenceratops shqiperorum, was originally described by Weishampel and colleagues (2003) as a second species of the rhabdodontid ornithopod Zalmoxes; Maidment and colleagues (2026) reanalyzed the holotype postcrania and recovered it as a ceratopsian, erecting a new genus and arguing that 'Zalmoxes' shqiperorum belongs to a previously unrecognized European ceratopsian lineage that also includes Ajkaceratops from Hungary.

Under dispute

Ferenceratops shqiperorum was erected by Maidment and colleagues (2026) for material formerly assigned to the ornithopod Zalmoxes shqiperorum, which they recovered within Ceratopsia, in a clade with Ajkaceratops, Zuniceratops, Turanoceratops and the ceratopsids. A later parsimony analysis by Dieudonné and colleagues (2026), whose matrix samples ceratopsians, recovered it instead as the sister taxon of Zalmoxes robustus among rhabdodontid ornithopods. It is placed at Cerapoda incertae sedis, the nearest clade both results accept.

Diagnosis

  1. Scapula with a narrow, strap-like scapular blade bearing a distal expansion.
  2. Well-developed, upwardly concave acromial process of the scapula.
  3. Coracoid with an extremely elongate and slender sternal process that projects well below the ventral margin of the glenoid.
  4. Gently curved ischium that lacks an obturator process.

Species

Ferenceratops shqiperorum Maidment et al., 2026

Type species

Honors the Albanian people (Albanian 'shqiptarët').

Holotype
NHMUK PV R 4900 , Natural History Museum
Material
Partial right dentary, partial dorsal vertebra, left scapula, partial left coracoid, ilium fragment, right ischium, left distal ischium, and left femur.
Horizon
Sânpetru Formation, Maastrichtian, Late Cretaceous , 72.2–66.0 million years ago
Locality
Sibișel Valley, Hunedoara, Romania

Notable specimens

  • UBB SPZ-2

    Museum of Paleontology-Stratigraphy, Department of Geology, Universitatea Babeș-Bolyai complementary

    The only specimen currently accepted as referable to Ferenceratops, referred on identical ischial anatomy: a nearly complete left and right pelvis articulated with the sacrum, adding articulated pelvic and sacral material beyond the disarticulated holotype.

    Maidment et al. (2026)

References

  1. Maidment, S. C. R.; Butler, R. J.; Brusatte, S. L.; Meade, L. E.; Augustin, F. J.; Csiki-Sava, Z.; Ősi, A. (2026). A hidden diversity of ceratopsian dinosaurs in Late Cretaceous Europe. Nature 651(8105): 397-403. Springer Science and Business Media LLC. doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09897-w

    Its parsimony and Bayesian analyses recover it within Ceratopsia, with Zuniceratops, Turanoceratops and the ceratopsids; the Bayesian runs group it with Ajkaceratops and Zalmoxes robustus.

    maidment2026a
  2. Weishampel, D. B.; Jianu, C.; Csiki, Z.; Norman, D. B. (2003). Osteology and phylogeny of Zalmoxes (n. g.), an unusual euornithopod dinosaur from the latest Cretaceous of Romania. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 1(2): 65-123. Informa UK Limited. doi:10.1017/s1477201903001032

    Originally described Ferenceratops shqiperorum as a species of Zalmoxes.

    weishampel2003a
  3. Dieudonné, P. E.; Paulina-Carabajal, A.; Cruzado-Caballero, P. (2026). A redescription of the holotype skull of the ornithischian dinosaur Gasparinisaura cincosaltensis (Dryosauridae, Dysalotosaurinae clade nov.) and phylogenetic implications. Cretaceous Research 189: 106478. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2026.106478

    Scores the taxon as Ferenceratops shqiperorum in a matrix that samples ceratopsians, and recovers it as the sister taxon of Zalmoxes robustus among rhabdodontid ornithopods.

    dieudonné2026b
  4. Augustin, F. J.; Ősi, A.; Csiki-Sava, Z. (2023). The Rhabdodontidae (Dinosauria, Ornithischia), an enigmatic dinosaur group endemic to the Late Cretaceous European Archipelago. Fossil Record 26(2): 171-189. Pensoft Publishers. doi:10.3897/fr.26.108967

    Corrects the holotype's provenance from Vurpăr in Alba County to Sânpetru in the Hațeg Basin, on Nopcsa's own account. The Vurpăr rhabdodontid is a different individual, referred to Zalmoxes robustus.

    augustin2023a