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Artist's rendering of Lokiceratops rangiformis
Artist's rendering of how researchers think Lokiceratops rangiformis may have appeared. Its name -- meaning "Loki's horned face that looks like a caribou" – was chosen for its distinctive asymmetrical horn pattern, resembling Loki, the Norse god.
Excavated from the Montana Badlands, Lokiceratops is a horned, plant-eating dinosaur that's among the largest and most ornate ever found, with two huge, blade-like horns on the back of its frill -- the largest frill horns ever seen in a ceratopsian. Researchers studying Lokiceratops have released the most complete analysis of horned dinosaur evolution ever conducted.
[Research supported by U.S. National Science Foundation grant EAR 0819953.]
Learn more in the NSF News story Fantastic fossils and where to find them. Or see The University of Utah news story Loki's horned dinosaur wielded a pair of giant blades (Date of image: April 17, 2024; date originally posted to NSF Multimedia Gallery: Nov. 8, 2024)
Credit: W Fabrizio Lavezzi © Evolutionsmuseet, Knuthenborg
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