Open Paleo

Yehuecauhceratops

Rivera-Sylva et al., 2017 yeh-WAY-cow-SEH-ruh-tops

From Nahuatl yehuecauh meaning 'ancient' combined with Greek keras meaning 'horn' and ops meaning 'face'; translates as 'ancient horned face'

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

Yehuecauhceratops is a genus of horned centrosaurine ceratopsid dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Coahuila, Mexico. It contains a single species, Y. mudei, described from two partial specimens by Rivera-Sylva and colleagues in 2016 and formally named by Rivera-Sylva and colleagues in 2017. It was a small centrosaurine with a body length of 3 meters (9.8 ft), making it smaller than Agujaceratops and Coahuilaceratops, the other two ceratopsids in its environment; the three may have been ecologically segregated. A ridge bearing a single roughened projection near the bottom of the squamosal bone, which probably supported a small horn, allows Yehuecauhceratops to be distinguished from other centrosaurines. Its affinities to nasutoceratopsin centrosaurines, such as Avaceratops and Nasutoceratops, are supported by various morphological similarities to the former.

Diagnosis

  1. Short ventral ridge on ventrolateral surface of squamosal ending adjacent to postquadratic embayment
  2. Prominent rugose subcircular protuberance on squamosal ridge representing probable small horn or enlarged scale core
  3. Irregularly undulated caudal margin of squamosal
  4. Lack of imbricated undulations on parietal frill

Species

Yehuecauhceratops mudei Rivera-Sylva et al., 2017

Type species

Named for the Museo del Desierto (MUDE), the institution in whose paleontological collection the type specimens are stored.

Holotype
CPC 274 , Colección Paleontológica de Coahuila, Museo del Desierto (MUDE)
Material
Partial skull with nearly complete right squamosal, parietal fragments, left dentary, right premaxilla; postcranial includes complete left scapula and femur, preacetabular process of left ilium, caudal process of right ischium, and vertebra from cervicodorsal region
Horizon
upper Aguja Formation, Campanian, Late Cretaceous , 83.6–72.2 million years ago
Locality
La Salada, Coahuila, Mexico

References

  1. Rivera-Sylva, H. E.; Frey, E.; Stinnesbeck, W.; Guzmán-Gutiérrez, J. R.; González-González, A. H. (2017). Mexican ceratopsids: Considerations on their diversity and biogeography. Journal of South American Earth Sciences 75: 66-73. Elsevier BV. doi:10.1016/j.jsames.2017.01.008 rivera-sylva2017a
  2. Jones, B. (2026). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs: Ornithischians. Princeton University Press.

    Source of the appearance features.

    jones2026a
  3. Rivera-Sylva, H. E.; Hedrick, B. P.; Dodson, P. (2016). A centrosaurine (Dinosauria: Ceratopsia) from the Aguja Formation (Late Campanian) of northern Coahuila, Mexico. PLOS ONE 11(4): e0150529. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0150529

    Original description of the holotype. Places it in the basal portion of the upper member of the Aguja Formation and prints the site's GPS coordinates.

    rivera-sylva2016a