STL Science Center

STL Science Center

12 February 2016

Friday Ceratops

Almost everyone knows about Wendy. Wendiceratops is another North American dinosaur described in 2015 that was afforded a considerable amount of media attention. Discovered in 2013-2014, the turn around time in description during 2015 as Wendiceratops pinhornensis (Evans and Ryan 2015) is one of the shortest in modern paleontology. Time between discovery and naming is not always indicative of a lack of detail, though smaller remains are sometimes described more quickly than larger groups or even single elements that are discovered. There are actually quite a few remains attributed to Wendiceratops, both cranially and postcranially. The quickness of the turnaround is partly due to the publication of the description occurring in PLOS One, which is known for its quick turnaround times. Notably, though, a great deal of post cranial elements that are attributed to Wendiceratops are significant structures of axial and appendicular skeleton not often recovered (relatively speaking) in ceratopsian fossil discoveries. Wendy was named after her discoverer, Wendy Sloboda, who found the area where the fossils were recovered within the Pinhorn Provincial Grazing Reserve in Alberta, Canada. The specific epithet comes from this locality name.
From PLOS One, Evans and Ryan
Blue elements denote discovered fossil remains

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