Crittendenceratops

Phylogeny: Dinosauria > Ornithischia > Genasauria > Neornithischia > Cerapoda > Marginocephalia > Ceratopsia > Neoceratopsia > Coronosauria > Ceratopsoidea > Ceratopsidae > Centrosaurinae > Nasutoceratopsini

Overview: Crittendenceratops takes part of its name from the Fort Crittenden Formation, where it was originally discovered, in the state of Arizona. Geologists date the Fort Crittenden to the Late Cretaceous, specifically around seventy-three million years ago. Crittendenceratops likely lived in a seasonal, coastal floodplain dotted by lakes and marshes. Studies suggest this environment would be subjected to periods of markedly dryer weather with lower water levels and wildfires. Wildfires, of course, were conducive to renewed plant growth in their aftermath, which would’ve been a boon to a low-browsing herbivore like Crittendenceratops. It remains the only novel genus to be fully described from the Fort Crittenden, though other dinosaur fossils have been found within the same rock layers, as well as the remains of crocodilians, turtles, lizards, and fish.

Phylogenetically, Crittendenceratops falls within the ceratopsid subfamily Centrosaurinae. Most of the centrosaurines had longer nasal horns and short brow horns, but this wasn’t universally true. In the case of Crittendenceratops, it specifically belonged to the tribe Nasutoceratopsini, named for its best known member – Nasutoceratops. These were early diverging, fairly basal centrosaurines that usually had long, curving brow horns like those of a bull, but no nasal horn. Nasutoceratopsins also tended to have remarkably deep snouts and large nasal openings. Most members of this tribe were also quite small by ceratopsid standards. Crittendenceratops itself only grew to maybe three or four meters long. As a ceratopsid, however, it was still a bulky animal. Predators would’ve had a tough time killing an adult, save for the largest of theropods or some river-dwelling crocodilians.