A team of researchers at the University of Alberta has unearthed a well-preserved Styracosaurus skull with facial imperfections that could change how paleontologists identify new species of dinosaurs.
“When parts of one side of the skull were missing, paleontologists have assumed that the missing side was symmetrical to the one that was preserved,” explained paleontologist Scott Persons, who was a graduate student at the U of A when he discovered the skull in 2015 during an expedition in the Alberta badlands northwest of Dinosaur Provincial Park.
“Turns out, it isn’t necessarily. Today, deer often have left and right antlers that are different in terms of their branching patterns. (This fossil) shows dramatically that dinosaurs could be the same way.”
Nicknamed Hannah, the dinosaur was a Styracosaurus—a horned dinosaur over five metres long with a frill of long horns.
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Image via Scott Persons.