Today we talk about a very weird-looking almost alien relative of Triceratops: Xenoceratops. Let’s get started.
Xenoceratops was a centrosaurine, part of another, much weirder branch of the ceratopsian family. Unlike its distant relative Triceratops, Xenoceratops had a trapezoidal neck frill and a good amount of horns, including two on the frill, many bony knobs surrounding the frill, two brow-horns, and pointy cheekbones.
Xenoceratops means ‘alien face’ and for good reason. The centrosaurines were known for having extravagant head displays that featured many horns and knobs. Centrosaurines are known to have lived in huge herds, as evidenced by group fossils from ancient floods. However, Triceratops and its family, the chasmosaurines, were more solitary and were not as finely adorned.
Xenoceratops is the oldest ceratopsian known from Canada. It lived in Alberta in the Late Cretaceous. Xenoceratops is the only ceratopsian from the Foremost Formation and the species name foremostensis honors that. Most of the specimens we have are fragmentary skulls, so we really don’t know a lot about this animal.
Anay Ganesh 