Anchiceratops

Anchiceratops was a chasmosaurine dinosaur discovered in the Late Cretaceous strata of Alberta, Canada. 5 and 5 metres in length and weighed roughly 2 tonnes. Barnum Brown named it near horned face to indicate its close morphological relationship to other ceratopsids known at the time. Anchiceratops possessed a strikingly ornate neck frill that was relatively narrow and thick, pierced by small fenestrae and lined with prominent, hooked projections and backward-pointing triangular spikes. In front of the frill sat two long brow horns that curved forward over large eyes, along with a short nasal horn. It was an herbivorous browser, using its robust beak to tackle waterlogged palms and shrubs while avoiding swamp-dwelling tyrannosaurids.

Its frill was adorned with distinct backward-pointing knobs and small triangular spikes around its border.

Where and when

Anchiceratops lived in the Late Cretaceous, from 72.5 to 71 million years ago (Maastrichtian age). Its remains come from Canada, in the Horseshoe Canyon Formation.

The numbers

Length 4.8 m (estimates run from 4.5 to 5 m). Mass about 1.8 t. Hip height about 1.6 m. That is 2.8 human-lengths, or 0.43 of a double-decker bus. These are estimates from partial skeleton; fields marked estimated by the site are length, mass, hip height.

Compare Anchiceratops with a bus Place on the timeline