Some cool new dinosaurs were discovered, if you believe in that sort of thing.
The bigger of the two new dinosaurs, with a skull 2.3 meters (about 7 feet) long, is Utahceratops gettyi (U-tah-SARA-tops get-EE-i). The first part of the name combines the state of origin with ceratops, Greek for “horned face.” The second part of the name honors Mike Getty, paleontology collections manager at the Utah Museum of Natural History and the discoverer of this animal.
Mark Loewen, one of the authors on the paper, likened Utahceratops to “a giant rhino with a ridiculously supersized head.”
Kosmoceratops richardsoni (KOZ-mo-SARA-tops RICH-ard-SON-i) is named for Scott Richardson, the volunteer who discovered two skulls of this animal. Kosmoceratops also has sideways-oriented eye horns, although much longer and more pointed than in Utahceratops.
In all, Kosmoceratops possesses a total of 15 horns — one over the nose, one atop each eye, one at the tip of each cheek bone, and ten across the rear margin of the bony frill — making it the most ornate-headed dinosaur known.
Scott Sampson, the paper’s lead author, claimed that, “Kosmoceratops is one of the most amazing animals known, with a huge skull decorated with an assortment of bony bells and whistles.”