Furcatoceratops

MEANING: Forked horned face

PERIOD: Late Cretaceous

CONTINENT: North America

Furcatoceratops is a centrosaurine ceratopsid dinosaur with two slightly curved horns above the eyes and a bony ridge along the nose. It was around 4 m in length, and is known from a nearly complete specimen. Because of this, Furcatoceratops serves as a useful comparative specimen for ceratopsian research.

Abstract from paper: Although ceratopsian dinosaurs have been excavated from the Judith River Formation for more than a century, their diversity within the formation remains poorly understood due to the fragmentary nature of those specimens. Here, we describe Furcatoceratops elucidans gen. et sp. nov., a new centrosaurine ceratopsid, based on a nearly complete skeleton found in the upper Judith River Formation. F. elucidans is diagnosed by several unique characters such as anteriorly oriented supraorbital horncores with slight medial curvature and anteroventral process of the nasal that laterally covers the premaxilla. Cladistic analysis recovered F. elucidans as an early-diverging centrosaurine closely related to Nasutoceratops. The holotype is inferred to be a subadult individual based on its surface textures, histological features, size and suture obliteration patterns among bones, thus providing insights into the ontogeny of ceratopsid dinosaurs. The inferred ontogenetic sequence of F. elucidans suggests that the supracranial elements co-ossified earlier than narial elements, as in the chasmosaurine Triceratops but possibly unlike in derived centrosaurines. Because most bones such as cranial and vertebral elements are disarticulated and well preserved, the holotype will serve as a useful comparative specimen for future ceratopsian research.

Furcatoceratops is from the Late Cretaceous. The Cretaceous is the third and final geological period of the Mesozoic Era, with the Late Cretaceous making up roughly the second half of it, lasting from about 100 to 66 million years ago. It was a time of significant evolutionary change, with dinosaurs reaching their greatest diversity before the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous.

The Cretaceous was a period with a relatively warm climate, though the Late Cretaceous experienced a global cooling trend, caused by falling levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The continents were nearing their present positions, but high sea levels flooded low-lying regions, turning Europe into an archipelago, and forming the Western Interior Seaway in North America. These seas were home to a variety of marine reptiles, including mosasaurs and plesiosaurs, while pterosaurs and birds shared the skies.

On land, dinosaurs continued to thrive and diversify during the Late Cretaceous, producing many of the most well-known groups, including tyrannosaurs, hadrosaurs, and pachycephalosaurs. Established Cretaceous dinosaur clades like the ceratopsians, ankylosaurs, and dromaeosaurs continued to flourish. Sauropod species consisted almost exclusively of titanosaurs, which seemed to be confined to the Southern Hemisphere for much of the Late Cretaceous. Flowering plants and grasses diversified and spread, becoming the dominant flora similar to what we see today.

The Cretaceous (along with the Mesozoic) ended with the Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) extinction event, a large mass extinction in which many groups, including non-avian dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and large marine reptiles, died out. This event, likely triggered by an asteroid impact, is marked by the abrupt K–Pg boundary, a distinct geologic layer separating the Mesozoic and Cenozoic Eras. In its aftermath, mammals and avian dinosaurs rapidly diversified, becoming the dominant land animals of the Cenozoic Era.

Furcatoceratops is a centrosaurine ceratopsid. Ceratopsians were a group of herbivorous ornithischian dinosaurs characterized by their beaked faces, elaborate skull ornamentation, and often dramatic frills and horns. Originating in the Jurassic as small bipedal animals, ceratopsians gradually evolved into larger and more quadrupedal forms over time. By the Late Cretaceous, they had become one of the dominant herbivorous groups in North America and parts of Asia. Their tooth batteries were well-suited for slicing through tough vegetation, and their facial horns and frills are thought to have been used in species recognition, display, and possibly defense or intraspecific combat.

Centrosaurinae was one of the two major branches of advanced ceratopsids. They generally had shorter brow horns, larger nasal horns, and more compact, often highly ornamented frills. While their frills were shorter, they were frequently adorned with elaborate spikes, hooks, and bosses that varied widely between species. Centrosaurines were especially diverse in the northern regions of Laramidia during the Late Cretaceous, and their fossil record reflects rapid evolutionary turnover, with many distinct species appearing in relatively short spans of time. This diversity in horn and frill shapes likely played a role in species recognition or sexual selection. Some evidence also points to possible use in social behaviors such as display, combat, or dominance hierarchies within herds.

Centrosaurinae and the generally larger-bodied chasmosaurinae together make up the ceratopsidae, the most derived group within the ceratopsia.