STL Science Center

STL Science Center

11 January 2012

Chasmosaurus of Canada, Again

Once again, a Lambe/Sternberg (including his sons) collaboration brings us another dinosaur. There is nothing at all wrong with that. In fact, had Cope and Marsh worked together they would have been an even more famous team, instead of famous rivals; much better to be a team I say. A number of other species existed in the genus beside the two valid species at one time or another including C. brevirostris and C. irvinensis. Other dinosaurs entirely were found to be Chasmosaurs, as is happening again now in paleontology but seems to be creating a much larger uproar than in the past. These include animals like Eoceratops and one of our poor Monoclonius species.

Chasmosaurus was one of those strangely in between dinosaurs. They had enormous heart shaped frills, larger than most ceratopsians except animals like Styracosaurus and the late Torosaurus, however, they had teeny tiny horns for such a big head. One of the main differences in the species, actually, is their horns. In C. belli the horns curve slightly forward in their tiny arc of existence while in C. russelli they curve up and back toward the top of the frill.

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