Meet Lokiceratops, a Newly Discovered Dinosaur With Amazing Frill Horns

Lokiceratops rangiformis is a newly discovered species of dinosaur, relative of the triceratops, found in the badlands of northern Montana.

Discovered by a large group comprised of scientists from the U.S., Canada, UK, Denmark, and Panama, Lokiceratops featured a huge, elaborate set of frill horns, potentially with bright colors on them.

Living in the Late Cretaceous period, this large dinosaur would have used its horns to signal mates, and warn or challenge rivals. An exciting and important discovery that shows our knowledge and history of the era of dinosaurs is still being written.

Below is a video describing the discovery and description of the dinosaur. Via NYTimes:

The Late Cretaceous of western North America supported diverse dinosaur assemblages, though understanding patterns of dinosaur diversity, evolution, and extinction has been historically limited by unequal geographic and temporal sampling.

In particular, the existence and extent of faunal endemism along the eastern coastal plain of Laramidia continues to generate debate, and finer scale regional patterns remain elusive.

Here, we report a new centrosaurine ceratopsid, Lokiceratops rangiformis, from the lower portion of the McClelland Ferry Member of the Judith River Formation in the Kennedy Coulee region along the Canada-USA border.

PeerJ, the journal that reported the new species. 

Various members of the extended family, which includes the newly discovered Lokiceratops.