Machairoceratops

Machairoceratops had two long, forward-curving spikes on the top of its frill, each about 44 cm long. These spikes had a strange groove running from base to tip, and scientists are not sure what it was for.12

Its postorbital horns (above the eyes) were about 27 cm long, but they were found detached from the skull, so their exact angle is unknown.1

This dinosaur lived about 80 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous. At that time, a huge sea split North America into two landmasses, and Machairoceratops lived on the western part called Laramidia.12

Machairoceratops is known from only one partial skull, found in 2006. The skull includes the braincase, left squamosal, and the unique frill bones.1

It was a centrosaurine ceratopsian, a group of horned dinosaurs that usually had large nose horns and fancy frills. Machairoceratops is one of the few centrosaurines found in the southern part of Laramidia.12

The name 'cronusi' refers to Cronus, a Greek god who used a curved blade. This matches the bent-sword shape of the dinosaur's frill spikes.1