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A new chasmosaurine from northern Laramidia expands frill disparity in ceratopsid dinosaurs

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Abstract

A new taxon of chasmosaurine ceratopsid demonstrates unexpected disparity in parietosquamosal frill shape among ceratopsid dinosaurs early in their evolutionary radiation. The new taxon is described based on two apomorphic squamosals collected from approximately time equivalent (approximately 77 million years old) sections of the upper Judith River Formation, Montana, and the lower Dinosaur Park Formation of Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta. It is referred to Chasmosaurinae based on the inferred elongate morphology. The typical chasmosaurine squamosal forms an obtuse triangle in dorsal view that tapers towards the posterolateral corner of the frill. In the dorsal view of the new taxon, the lateral margin of the squamosal is hatchet-shaped with the posterior portion modified into a constricted narrow bar that would have supported the lateral margin of a robust parietal. The new taxon represents the oldest chasmosaurine from Canada, and the first pre-Maastrichtian ceratopsid to have been collected on both sides of the Canada–US border, with a minimum north–south range of 380 km. This squamosal morphology would have given the frill of the new taxon a unique dorsal profile that represents evolutionary experimentation in frill signalling near the origin of chasmosaurine ceratopsids and reinforces biogeographic differences between northern and southern faunal provinces in the Campanian of North America.

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Acknowledgments

The specimen was acquired by the ROM from Triebold Paleontology and prepared by Ian Morrison. UALVP 54559 was discovered by Susan Owen-Kagen on July 1, 2012, collected by SO-K and PJC on July 3, 2012 and subsequently prepared by SO-K. Danielle Dufault drew the line illustrations in Figs. 2 and 4. Clive Coy photographed UALVP 54559. DCE was supported by a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Discovery Grant. Reviews by Rob Holmes and two anonymous reviewers improved the manuscript.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Vertebrate Paleontology, Cleveland Museum of Natural History, 1 Wade Oval Dr., University Circle, Cleveland, OH, 44106, USA

    Michael J. Ryan

  2. Department of Natural History, Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queen’s Park, Toronto, ON, M5S 2C6, Canada

    David C. Evans

  3. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, 25 Willcocks Street, Toronto, ON, M5S 3B2, Canada

    David C. Evans

  4. Department of Biological Sciences, CW 405 Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Building, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2E9, Canada

    Philip J. Currie

  5. Natural History Museum of Utah and Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Utah, 301 Wakara Way, Salt Lake City, UT 84108, USA

    Mark A. Loewen

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  1. Michael J. Ryan
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Correspondence to Michael J. Ryan.

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Communicated by: Robert R. Reisz

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Ryan, M.J., Evans, D.C., Currie, P.J. et al. A new chasmosaurine from northern Laramidia expands frill disparity in ceratopsid dinosaurs. Naturwissenschaften 101, 505–512 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-014-1183-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-014-1183-1

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