Dinosaurs with special horn decorations found in the Americas

Researchers have discovered the remains of a previously unknown dinosaur in North America. The dinosaur, which weighed about five tons, wore a strange horn ornament on its head, a research team reported in the special journal “PeerJ”.

Thus, the herbivore had flat, curved horns on its neck shield and asymmetrical horns on the tip of the shield. In addition, two large horns rose above the eyes.

According to the researchers, its name Loiceratops rungiformis (“the horned face of Loki that looks like a caribou”) was inspired by Norse mythology. There Loki is the god of deceit and lies.

A shapeshifter is often depicted with horns. Loki is also a popular figure in pop culture and, among other things, inspired a “Marvel” series of the same name starring Tom Hiddleston. The second name refers to the varying length of the horns at the tip of the pronotum, similar to the asymmetrical horns of Rangiformis, caribou and reindeer.

The research team explains that Logiceratops rungiformis was a relative of Triceratops and lived about 78 million years ago. The remains of the nearly seven-meter-long dinosaur were unearthed in 2019 in the northern US state of Montana, a few kilometers south of the Canadian border.

Many dinosaur fossils have been found there. Two paleontologists from Colorado State University and the University of Utah realized from the skull fragments that they were dealing with a new species.

According to researchers, Loiceratops rungiformis is the largest dinosaur discovered in North America to date from the Centrosaurinae group. He may also have had larger neck shield horns than his cousins. Unlike other representatives of the group, he does not have a nose horn.

“We think these dinosaurs' horns resembled what birds do with their feathers,” said co-author Joseph Serdich. “They used them to choose a mate or to recognize members of their own species.” The reconstructed skull of the dinosaur was donated to the collection of the Museum of Evolution in Maribo, Denmark.