<p>Triceratops are passe. Here comes a new horned dinosaur and its cranial ornamentation is even more flowery than the three-horned dinosaur the world had earlier come to know, reveals a new study.<br /><br /></p>.<p>A study of the recently discovered species, Mercuriceratops gemini, provides more details on this flashy dinosaur which possessed not only the standard trifecta of facial horns but also a giant, winglike frill protruding from the back of its skull.<br /><br />The research is based on fossil evidence collected from Montana and Alberta, Canada.<br /><br />The dinosaur's name, Mercuriceratops, is a combination of "Mercury" - the Roman God best known for his winged helmet - and "ceratops," a Greek word meaning "horned face."<br /><br />"The butterfly shaped frill, or neck shield, of Mercuriceratops is unlike anything we have seen before," said David Evans, curator of vertebrate paleontology at Royal Ontario Museum in Canada.<br /><br />"Mercuriceratops shows that evolution gave rise to much greater variation in horned dinosaur headgear than we had previously suspected," he added.<br /><br />Mercuriceratops gemini lived about 77 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous Period, and was approximately 6 metres long and weighed more than 2 tonnes, Live Science reported. The findings appeared in the journal Naturwissenschaften.</p>
<p>Triceratops are passe. Here comes a new horned dinosaur and its cranial ornamentation is even more flowery than the three-horned dinosaur the world had earlier come to know, reveals a new study.<br /><br /></p>.<p>A study of the recently discovered species, Mercuriceratops gemini, provides more details on this flashy dinosaur which possessed not only the standard trifecta of facial horns but also a giant, winglike frill protruding from the back of its skull.<br /><br />The research is based on fossil evidence collected from Montana and Alberta, Canada.<br /><br />The dinosaur's name, Mercuriceratops, is a combination of "Mercury" - the Roman God best known for his winged helmet - and "ceratops," a Greek word meaning "horned face."<br /><br />"The butterfly shaped frill, or neck shield, of Mercuriceratops is unlike anything we have seen before," said David Evans, curator of vertebrate paleontology at Royal Ontario Museum in Canada.<br /><br />"Mercuriceratops shows that evolution gave rise to much greater variation in horned dinosaur headgear than we had previously suspected," he added.<br /><br />Mercuriceratops gemini lived about 77 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous Period, and was approximately 6 metres long and weighed more than 2 tonnes, Live Science reported. The findings appeared in the journal Naturwissenschaften.</p>