Dino card No. 1108 of 2,027

Machairoceratops

Say it: ma-KYE-ro-SER-ah-tops

Name means: “bent sword horned face”1

Ate: PlantsHorned dinosLate Cretaceous

Machairoceratops was a horned dinosaur that lived in what is now Utah, USA, about 80 million years ago. It had two long, forward-curving spikes on the back of its frill, like bent swords. This dinosaur was a plant-eater that walked on four legs.1 2

Lived

84 to 72 million years ago4

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Grand Staircase,Escalante National Monument, southern Utah, USA1 2

Food

Plants3 2

Length

6 to 8 m2

estimate

Weight

1 tonnes to 2 tonnes2

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

How heavy was it?

as heavy as 1.5 cars

as long as 8 dogs nose to tailas long as 44 bananas end to endas heavy as 67 big dogsas heavy as 400 watermelons

How big was Machairoceratops compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

cool stuff

Fun facts

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.1 2

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.1 2

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.1 2

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

AI-made picture of Machairoceratops — An AI-made picture of how Machairoceratops might have looked, made by a computer from what scientists know. It is a guess: the real animal may have looked different, and nobody knows its true colours.

you asked

Most asked questions about Machairoceratops

?How big was Machairoceratops?

Scientists do not know its exact size, but its skull is very close in size to Diabloceratops, another horned dinosaur. It was a medium-sized ceratopsian, probably similar in length to a small car.1

?What did Machairoceratops eat?

It was a plant-eater (herbivore) that walked on four legs and used its beak to eat plants like ferns and cycads.1

?When did Machairoceratops live?

It lived about 80 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous Period, in what is now Utah, USA.1

?Why does Machairoceratops have bent spikes?

The two long, forward-curving spikes on its frill looked like bent swords, which is how it got its name. Scientists are not sure exactly what they were used for, but they may have been for display or defense.1

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Machairoceratops
Named by: Lund et al. 20164
Group: Horned dinos
Family / clade: Ceratopsidae4
Classification: Ornithischia > Ceratopsia > Ceratopsidae4
Age of the rocks: 84 to 72 million years (Campanian)4
Rock formations: Wahweap4
Countries: USA4
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database4
Discovery: Machairoceratops was named in 2016 by Eric K. Lund and colleagues. The only known fossil was found in 2006 in Grand Staircase,Escalante National Monument, Utah, and is stored at the Natural History Museum of Utah.1 2
Still debated: Scientists are not sure why the frill spikes have a groove along their length. It might have been for display, or something else.2

Where the facts come from

Machairoceratops (en.wikipedia.org)
Paleontologists discover new species of horned dinosaur in southern Utah (nhmu.utah.edu)
PBDB Taxon (paleobiodb.org)
Machairoceratops in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

Every fact on this page has a number that points to its source. If we got something wrong, sorry, we are dino fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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