Newly-Discovered Horned Dinosaur is a Cousin to Triceratops

A newly-discovered dinosaur may be the latest member of the Tricerotops' family tree. Scientists have discovered a new species of plant-eating dinosaur that was the size of a spaniel.

The dinosaur has officially been named Hualianceratops wucaiwanensis, and stood on its hind legs. While it's a member of the "horned dinosaur," this new species actually doesn't possess horns itself. Working from a partial skull and a foot, the researchers reconstructed the new dinosaur by comparing it to other ceratopsians.

Hualianceratops lived about 160 million years ago, which was early in the Late Jurassic Period. The researchers found evolutionary relationships for the new species and other ceratopsians, which indicated that several lineages of ceratopsians were present at the same time. This includes the diverse group Neoceratopsia that dominated the Late Cretaceous.

"Identifying Hualianceratops allows us to expand the beaked family of dinosaurs (Ceratopsia), which includes popular species like Triceratops and Psittacosaurus," said Fenglu Han, one of the researchers, in a news release. "Now we know the horned dinosaurs thrived in the early Late Jurassic and they co-existed with Guanlong, which was an early relative of T. rex and maybe threatened them.

The findings reveal a bit more about this newly-discovered species of dinosaur. This, in turn, may tell scientists a bit more about this period of time in the ancient past.

The findings are published in the journal PLOS One.

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