Dino card No. 1297 of 2,015

Ojoceratops

Say it: OH-ho-SER-ah-tops

Name means: “Ojo Alamo horned face”1

Ate: PlantsHorned dinosLate Cretaceous

Ojoceratops was a horned dinosaur that looked a lot like Triceratops but lived a little earlier. It had a big frill on its head and three horns on its face. Some scientists think it might actually be the same as Triceratops!1

Lived

84 to 66 million years ago2

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

New Mexico, USA1 2

Food

Plants2

Artist's life restoration of Ojoceratops — How Ojoceratops may have looked, by LancianIdolatry. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Scientists still argue about colours and details.

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

cool stuff

Fun facts

Ojoceratops lived about 66 million years ago, near the very end of the age of dinosaurs.1

Its name means 'Ojo Alamo horned face' because its fossils were found in the Ojo Alamo Formation in New Mexico.1

Ojoceratops had a more squared-off frill than Triceratops, but some scientists say that shape also appears in some Triceratops specimens.1

Some experts think Ojoceratops might be the same dinosaur as Triceratops or Eotriceratops, but others say it is a valid genus with unique features.1

The only known fossil of Ojoceratops is a partial skull, including a left squamosal bone.2

Ojoceratops belongs to the same group as Triceratops, called Triceratopsini.1

Myth buster

Myth: Ojoceratops is definitely a separate dinosaur from Triceratops.

Truth: Scientists disagree. Some think Ojoceratops is just a younger version of Triceratops, while others say it has enough unique features to be its own genus.1

For dino experts

Scientific name: Ojoceratops
Named by: Sullivan and Lucas 20102
Group: Horned dinos
Family / clade: Ceratopsidae2
Classification: Ornithischia > Ceratopsia > Ceratopsidae2
Age of the rocks: 84 to 66 million years (Campanian to Maastrichtian)2
Rock formations: Ojo Alamo2
Countries: USA2
Fossil records: 166 in the Paleobiology Database2
Discovery: Ojoceratops was named by Robert Sullivan and Spencer Lucas in 2010 based on a partial skull found in New Mexico.1 2
Still debated: Scientists are still debating whether Ojoceratops is a separate dinosaur or just another name for Triceratops.1

Where the facts come from

Ojoceratops (en.wikipedia.org)
Ojoceratops 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.