Unusual horned dino unearthed in Canada

Unusual horned dino unearthed in Canada
Miami: The skull of a horned
dinosaur that was previously unknown to scientists and was unearthed in Canada
is actually a relative of the Triceratops, researchers this week.

Photo credit :http://www.thenews.com.pk

It was gathered that The bones were
found penetrating  and sticking out of a
cliff along the Oldman River in southeastern Alberta about a decade ago.

“Nevertheless, it was not until
the sample was being slowly prepared from the rocks in the laboratory that the
full anatomy was uncovered, and the bizarre suite of characters revealed,”
said Caleb Brown of the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Alberta,
Canada.
The creature, named Regaliceratops
peterhewsi — a reference to its crown-like frill and to Peter Hews, the man
who first found and reported it to the museum — is described in the June 4
edition of the journal Current Biology.
“Once it was prepared it was perceptibly
a new species, and an unforeseen one at that. Many horned-dinosaur researchers
who visited the museum did a double take when they first saw it in the
laboratory.”
 
With a shield-like frill at the back
of the skull that resembles a crown, and a taller nose horn than seen on the
Triceratops, the dinosaur also has two horns over its eyes that are
“almost comically small,” said Brown.
Brown said the dinosaur´s nickname
among paleontologists is “Hellboy.”
Researchers hope that more fossils
may be found in the same area that may shed more light on the creature and its
relationship to both the Triceratops and the Chasmosaurus. (AFP)