Skip to main content

Tiny Fossil Is North America's Oldest (and Cutest) Horned Dinosaur

A tiny skull from southern Montana represents a new kind of horned dinosaur that had a distinctive hooked beak and was about the size of a crow.

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American



On supporting science journalism

If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.


A tiny skull from southern Montana represents a new kind of horned dinosaur that had a distinctive hooked beak and was about the size of a crow. Dubbed Aquilops americanus, the specimen dates to between 104 million and 109 milllion years ago, making it the oldest known representative of the neoceratopsian group of dinosaurs in North America.

Analysis of Aquilops indicates that it is closely related to neoceratopsians that lived in Asia at around the same time, but not to later horned dinosaurs from North America. The finding suggests that the ancestors of Aquilops migrated from Asia to North America from Asia, probably via the Bering land bridge, before 104 million years ago, and that other dispersals gave rise to later horned dinosaurs in North America. Andrew A. Farke of the Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology in Claremont, Calif., and his colleagues describe the new dinosaur in a paper published December 10 in PLOS ONE.

 

Kate Wong is an award-winning science writer and senior editor at Scientific American focused on evolution, ecology, anthropology, archaeology, paleontology and animal behavior. She is fascinated by human origins, which she has covered for more than 25 years. Recently she has become obsessed with birds. Her reporting has taken her to caves in France and Croatia that Neandertals once called home, to the shores of Kenya's Lake Turkana in search of the oldest stone tools in the world, to Madagascar on an expedition to unearth ancient mammals and dinosaurs, to the icy waters of Antarctica, where humpback whales feast on krill, and on a "Big Day" race around the state of Connecticut to find as many bird species as possible in 24 hours. Kate is co-author, with Donald Johanson, of Lucy's Legacy: The Quest for Human Origins. She holds a bachelor of science degree in biological anthropology and zoology from the University of Michigan. Follow Wong on X (formerly Twitter) @katewong

More by Kate Wong