What do you name a new dinosaur unlike anything else ever seen before? Usually, dinos are named after some trait of their body or their discoverer with a handle that's hard to say. Nicholas Longrich, a paleontologist at Yale University, found a new species in Canada and wanted a unique name to match the creature's unusual feature, so he met a few fellow scientists over a few beers and they bantered possibilities. Longrich jokingly mentioned "mojoceratops" and all conversation stopped as the men realized that was a cool name, and it somehow fit. Mojoceratops had a large neck frill on its skull that was heart shaped and was believed to be used in attracting a mate. The beast lived about 75 million years ago, preceding its more famous cousin Triceratops by 10 million years. It was a vegetarian about the size of a hippopotamus, and is believed to have lived over a period of only one million years. Ceratopsians were dinosaurs with large skulls bearing either horns, a neck-covering frill, or both.
In : Paleontology
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dinosaurs
paleontologists