Chasmosaurus of Canada

©Paul Heaton

Taking another stroll in the Canadian quarries, our esteemed colleague Lawrence Lambe fished out dinosaur after dinosaur and this time found himself the frill of a large ceratopsian. Years later Sternberg would find more complete skeletons with his sons and then, in their true back and forth relationship, Lambe would describe the new genus and species from these remains. Chasmosaurus belli and Chasmosaurus russelli make up the two recognized species of Chasmosaurus as we know them today. Lending their name to the group of large frilled ceratopsians, the chasmosaurines, Chasmosaurus has a long distinctive heart shaped frill with two large fenestrae in the frill bones (or it can be described as possessing squamosal fenestrae). Chasmosaurus, unlike Torosaurus, is indeed its own animal and not the adult form of a previously named animal, as far as I am aware, so no one need get too excited. These herbivores have been found time and again and a good deal of information is known about them. There are even good skin impressions in at least one fossil find.