
It lived about 12 million years before its best-known relative. TriceratopsAt the time, its habitat, in what is now western North America, was an island continent named Laramidia.
Several other ceratopsian dinosaurs have been found in the same collection, “so this is the first time we've found five ceratopsians from the same place and time,” Sertich says.
Mark Lowen Researchers from the University of Utah named the fossil after the Norse god Loki, as its permanent home is now in Denmark. Rangiformisrefers to the similarity between the asymmetric central frill horns of dinosaurs and the asymmetric front rami, or branches, of reindeer antlers.
“Many modern deer have asymmetric antlers,” says Loewen. “We know that asymmetry is not uncommon in horned dinosaurs, but Lociceratops. “
Erich Fitzgerald Researchers from Museum Victoria in Melbourne, Australia, say the discovery reveals an extraordinary biodiversity of ceratopsian dinosaurs that evolved during the Late Cretaceous period in western North America.
“This study highlights the differences between the horned dinosaur fauna from 80 to 70 million years ago and that of the End Cretaceous Period, 66 to 68 million years ago. Triceratops “They dominated a low-diversity group of horned megafaunas,” Fitzgerald said.
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Source: www.newscientist.com