Pronunciation: PREE-no-SEH-ruh-tops
Meaning: Sloping horned face
Author/s: Chinnery (2004)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Montana, USA
Discovery Chart Position: #549
Prenoceratops pieganensis
(Sloping Horned Face from Piegan Land)Etymology
Prenoceratops is derived from the Greek "prenes" (sloping, slanted or inclined), "cerat" (horn) and "-ops" (face), because of the sloping profile of its head and the "horn-faced" family (Ceratopsia) to which it belongs.
The species epithet, pieganensis, means "from Piegan" in Latin, and refers to its discovery on land owned by the Piegan (aka Piikáni) tribe of the Blackfoot Indian Nation that reside in Montana.
Discovery
The first fossils of Prenoceratops were discovered at the "Piegan bonebed" in the Two Medicine Formation of Pondera County, Montana, USA.
The holotype (TCM 2003.1.1) consists of two skull bones (a surangular fused with an articular), plucked from a bonebed containing the jumbled bones of at least four individuals, most of which still hasn't been described. In 2010, an isolated skull bone (right frontal), found near a fossilized Hypacrosaurus nesting site in Alberta's Oldman Formation, was ascribed to Prenoceratops by Miyashita et al.
Preparator
Dave Trexler.
