Pronunciation: muh-DOO-suh-SEH-ruh-tops
Meaning: Medusa horned face
Author/s: Ryan (2010)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Montana, USA
Discovery Chart Position: #709
Medusaceratops lokii
In 2001, some ceratopsid (horn-faced dinosaur) fossils were collected from a quarry in Alberta's Oldman Formation and tagged "Medusaceratops" in the thesis of Michael J. Ryan two years later. He based the name on the snake-like projections found on three fossilised frills, a couple of which hailed from Montana and had snuck into the bone pile while no one was looking. Given this misdemeanour and the fact that the Albertan fossils were far more numerous, Ryan assumed that the owners of said frills were renegade Canadians who had jumped the USA border. So he chose the name Albertaceratops, in honour of Alberta, Canada, for the combined lot of fossils that were officially described in 2007. Then he changed his mind again.
Albertaceratops is a complicated critter in that it's a confirmed centrosaurine — the typically short brow-horned, long nose-horned ceratopsids — but sports long brow horns and a low, banana-shaped boss where an often impressive centrosaurine nose horn would usually be. The remains from Montana, however, caused even more complications because they seemed to belong to something else entirely. And after further study, that something else turned out to be a chasmosaurine: one of the centrosaurine ceratopsid's cousins, whose hallmarks include long brow horns and a short nose horn.
After many sleepless nights, Ryan coined an official Medusaceratops in 2010 and heralded it as the first official Campanian-aged chasmosaurine from Montana and the oldest chasmosaurine known from anywhere. But is it just another ceratopsian borne of exuberance? Before its official description, Medusaceratops laid claim to a plethora of fragmentary remains from Montana's chasmosaurine-dominated "Mansfield bone bed", but some of them are strikingly similar to those of Ceratops — the name bearer of the entire Ceratopsia clade, no less — that was found just eight miles away and named in 1888. Granted, the latter has been shunned by most experts because of its ropey remains, and while it's true that thus far none of these fossils can be confidently referred to it, or any other ceratopsian for that matter, not all of them have been properly scrutinized as yet either, so who's to say where they actually belong.
Albertaceratops is a complicated critter in that it's a confirmed centrosaurine — the typically short brow-horned, long nose-horned ceratopsids — but sports long brow horns and a low, banana-shaped boss where an often impressive centrosaurine nose horn would usually be. The remains from Montana, however, caused even more complications because they seemed to belong to something else entirely. And after further study, that something else turned out to be a chasmosaurine: one of the centrosaurine ceratopsid's cousins, whose hallmarks include long brow horns and a short nose horn.
After many sleepless nights, Ryan coined an official Medusaceratops in 2010 and heralded it as the first official Campanian-aged chasmosaurine from Montana and the oldest chasmosaurine known from anywhere. But is it just another ceratopsian borne of exuberance? Before its official description, Medusaceratops laid claim to a plethora of fragmentary remains from Montana's chasmosaurine-dominated "Mansfield bone bed", but some of them are strikingly similar to those of Ceratops — the name bearer of the entire Ceratopsia clade, no less — that was found just eight miles away and named in 1888. Granted, the latter has been shunned by most experts because of its ropey remains, and while it's true that thus far none of these fossils can be confidently referred to it, or any other ceratopsian for that matter, not all of them have been properly scrutinized as yet either, so who's to say where they actually belong.
Etymology
Medusaceratops is derived from "Medusa" (a petrifying hag from Greek mythology with serpents for hair, alluding to the snake-like hooks on the rear part of its frill), and the Greek "ceras" (horn) and "ops" (face). Medusa wasn't always a munter, but she became one after incurring Athena's wrath for canoodling with Poseidon in her temple! Tsk tsk. The species epithet, Lokii, is named for Loki, the Norse God of mischief and mayhem, because of the problems encountered when trying to separate this dinosaur's remains from the Albertaceratops bone-pile that it was long part of. Behind Utah's Hagryphus giganteus, Medusaceratops lokii is the second dinosaur to honour mythological characters from two different cultures. ZooBank registry: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:36B055FE-213D-46D6-BDFA-2B25E104E1E9.
Discovery
The first remains of Medusaceratops were discovered in "the Mansfield Bonebed" of the Judith River Formation, along the west side of Kennedy Coulee bordering the Milk River, near Havre, Hill County, Montana.
Two partial frills (parietals) form the holotype (WDC-DJR-001) and the paratype (WDC-DJR-002).
