Canadian scientists from the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa have discovered a new dinosaur species called Xenoceratops foremostensis. Said to have roamed the lands that is now southern Alberta; the four legged, horned dinosaur is an early member of the group of dinosaurs that would eventually become triceratops.
The discovery was made after scientists happened to come across small pieces of unidentified fossils that had been on display since 1958. In 2003, paleontologists Michael Ryan, Kieran Shepherd and David Evans revisited the fossils, opening a new investigation. The probe eventually led them back to the excavation cite where a new set of fossils was discovered. The team reconstructed the dinosaur from the fragments they discovered combined with the old fragments originally discovered by Wann Langston Jr. in ’58.
The new dinosaur, whose name translates to "alien horned-face," looks menacing but was actually a herbivore who only ate plants. It’s wild to consider this beast was actually prey for larger, even more menacing dinosaurs of his time.
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