Montanoceratops

Phylogeny: Dinosauria > Ornithischia > Genasauria > Neornithischia > Cerapoda > Marginocephalia > Ceratopsia > Neoceratopsia > Euceratopsia > Leptoceratopsidae

Overview: Montanoceratops was a relative of the famous horned ceratopsid dinosaurs - the family that included Triceratops and its ilk. It even coexisted with a few of such dinosaurs, including genera like Pachyrhinosaurus and Regaliceratops. However, Montanoceratops itself belonged to a different family, known to science as the Leptoceratopsidae. Leptoceratopsids were generally on the smaller side. Montanoceratops was average-sized for a leptoceratopsid, or possibly on the larger end. These creatures lacked the large ornamental horns seen on ceratopsids, but shared an expanded crest of bone at the back of the skull, which may’ve been an anchor point for jaw muscles. The jaws of Montanoceratops were notably deep and robust. It was a largely or entirely herbivorous animal, its beak useful for both shearing plants and for defense against predators. It probably walked down on all fours, unlike some of its earlier relatives.

Described as a genus in 1951, Montanoceratops takes its name from the American state where it was first discovered, back in the mid-1910’s. Originally, the bones were assigned to Leptoceratops, a close relative known from somewhat younger rock layers. Montanoceratops itself is known definitively from Montana’s St. Mary River Formation, so it probably lived around seventy million years ago, in the Late Cretaceous. This formation has also yielded the fossils of Albertosaurus - a large-bodied tyrannosaur that was probably this animal’s main threat. Fossils possibly referable to Montanoceratops may also be known from the similarly-aged Horseshoe Canyon Formation in Canada, but in some studies, their classification as such as been questioned. Leptoceratopsids are notable for living towards the end of the Cretaceous while retaining a number of rather “primitive” traits and smaller body sizes. Ceratopsians in general were still a very diverse clade up until that point.