Styracosaurus
From Ancient Greek styrax, "spike at the butt-end of a spear-shaft", combined with Greek sauros, "lizard" — means "spiked lizard"
Styracosaurus is an extinct genus of herbivorous dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous (Campanian stage) of North America. It had four to six long parietal spikes extending from its neck frill, a smaller jugal horn on each of its cheeks, and a single horn protruding from its nose, which may have been up to 60 centimeters (2 feet) long and 15 centimeters (6 inches) wide. The function or functions of the horns and frills have been debated for many years.
Diagnosis
- Nasal horn-core large, upright, straight, rising from back of nasals and positioned remotely from acute rostral apex
- Spike-shaped projections on posterior margin of frill (three pairs on each side, tapering, projecting obliquely backward and outward)
- Postfrontal fontanelle large and long
- Squamosals quadrangular, entering largely into front part of frill
- Supratemporal fossae opening widely behind
- Supraorbital horn-core incipient (small smooth depression indicating minute horn-core)
Species
Styracosaurus albertensis Lambe, 1913
Type species
Named for Alberta, the Canadian province where the holotype skull was discovered along the Red Deer River.
- Holotype
- CMN 344 , Canadian Museum of Nature
- Material
- Skull with frill; nearly complete but missing lower jaw and rostral bone; nasal horn-core broken, posterior frill processes partially broken but recovered.
- Horizon
- upper Dinosaur Park Formation, Campanian, Late Cretaceous , 83.6–72.2 million years ago
- Locality
- Quarry 016, Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta, Canada
Synonyms of the genus
| Name | Type | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Rubeosaurus | junior subjective | Holmes and colleagues (2020) found Rubeosaurus ovatus to fall within the variation of Styracosaurus albertensis and synonymized the two; Brown and colleagues (2020) adopt that result, treating S. ovatus as an extreme morph rather than a distinct taxon. |
Notable specimens
-
TMP 2009.080.0001
Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology Found 2008 ontogeny
Nearly complete skull and partial skeleton from Princess Coulee, notable as the smallest and likely youngest known Styracosaurus with a nearly complete skull, documenting a juvenile growth stage of the genus.
-
UALVP 55900
University of Alberta Laboratory for Vertebrate Paleontology Found 2015 individual variation
Skull of a large Styracosaurus from Matzhiwin Creek near Duchess, Alberta; its asymmetrical horns, compared to deer antlers, indicate that individual variation was likely commonplace in the genus.
-
TMP 1989.097.0001
Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology Found 1989 range extension
Nearly complete skull and skeleton from Sage Creek, about 130 kilometers southeast of the holotype, the only definitive specimen of Styracosaurus albertensis from outside Dinosaur Provincial Park.
References
- Brown, C.; Holmes, R. B.; Currie, P. J. (2020). A subadult individual of Styracosaurus albertensis (Ornithischia: Ceratopsidae) with comments on ontogeny and intraspecific variation in Styracosaurus and Centrosaurus. Vertebrate Anatomy Morphology Palaeontology 8(1): 67-95. doi:10.18435/vamp29361 brown2020a
- Holmes, R. B.; Persons, W. S.; Singh Rupal, B.; Jawad Qureshi, A.; Currie, P. J. (2020). Morphological variation and asymmetrical development in the skull of Styracosaurus albertensis. Cretaceous Research 107: 104308. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2019.104308 holmes2020a
- Ryan, M. J.; Holmes, R. B.; Russell, A. P. (2007). A revision of the late Campanian centrosaurine ceratopsid genus Styracosaurus from the Western Interior of North America. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 27(4): 944-962. doi:10.1671/0272-4634(2007)27[944:AROTLC]2.0.CO;2 ryan2007b
- Lambe, L. M. (1913). A new genus and species of Ceratopsia from the Belly River Formation of Alberta. The Ottawa Naturalist 27(9): 109-116. lambe1913a
-
Jones, B. (2026). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs: Ornithischians. Princeton University Press.
Source of the appearance features.
jones2026a