Researchers identified the first horned dinosaur species from the Early Cretaceous period in North America, which was approximately 104-109 million years ago.
The fossil record for the horned dinosaur (neoceratopsian) is largely undocumented, but this study allowed researchers to reconstruct the group's early evolution, PLOS reported.
Researchers discovered a dinosaur skull in Montana that is believed to have been from a neoceratopsian family.
Researchers named the species Aquilops americanu. The ancient dinosaur boasts neoceratopsian features, and is related to other Asian species. The skull is much smaller than that of most local species, and has distinguishing features such as a "strongly hooked rostral bone, or beak-like structure, and an elongated and sharply pointed cavity over the cheek region."
The new neoceratopsian fossil records support the occurrence of a late Early Cretaceous Intercontinental migratory event between Asia and North America as well as a complex set of migratory events for organisms between North America and Asia later in the Cretaceous.
In the future, researchers hope to conduct further field work in hopes of gaining more insight into the phenomenon.
"Aquilops lived nearly 20 million years before the next oldest horned dinosaur named from North America," said researcher Andrew Farke. "Even so, we were surprised that it was more closely related to Asian animals than those from North America."
Funding was received from the National Science Foundation; National Geographic Societyand American Chemical Society. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript.
Andrew A. Farke is a volunteer section editor and academic editor for PLOS ONE.
