Vagaceratops

Vagaceratops is a medium-sized chasmosaurine ceratopsid that inhabited North America during the late Campanian stage of the Cretaceous. Originally described as a species of Chasmosaurus in 2001, it was reassigned to its own genus in 2010 after phylogenetic studies revealed closer affinities to southern ceratopsids such as Kosmoceratops. Stretching about 5 metres long and weighing over a tonne, it was a stocky herbivore with remarkably unconventional ornamentation. Vagaceratops completely lacked pointed brow horns, bearing instead flattened rugose pads over the eyes. Its short, squared-off bony frill was edged by a row of forward-curving, tongue-like epoccipitals that resembled a decorative scalloped crest. It walked on four sturdy limbs and cropped fibrous vegetation across coastal floodplains. Its discovery highlighted surprisingly dynamic evolutionary exchanges between northern and southern faunal provinces across the Western Interior.

Unlike most chasmosaurines, Vagaceratops entirely lacked elongated brow horns and had a scalloped frill.

Where and when

Vagaceratops lived in the Late Cretaceous, from 75.5 to 74.5 million years ago (Campanian age). Its remains come from Canada, in the Dinosaur Park Formation.

The numbers

Length 4.8 m (estimates run from 4.5 to 5 m). Mass about 1.5 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 Vagaceratops with a bus Place on the timeline