Dino card No. 1700 of 2,027

Spinops

Say it: SPY-nops

Name means: “spine face”1

Ate: PlantsHorned dinosLate Cretaceous

Spinops was a medium-sized horned dinosaur that lived in what is now Alberta, Canada. It had a fancy frill on its head with hooks and long spikes that made it look very different from its relatives.2 1

Lived

84 to 72 million years ago4

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Alberta, Canada (Dinosaur Provincial Park)2 1

Food

Plants4

Length

4.5 m2

Weight

1.3 tonnes2

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

as long as 2.5 bicycles in a rowas long as 25 bananas end to endas heavy as 43 big dogsas heavy as 260 watermelons

How big was Spinops compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Spinops had a pair of forward-curving hooks on the middle of its frill, and just next to them were extremely long, backward-pointing spikes.1

The fossils of Spinops were first collected in 1916 by Charles H. Sternberg and his son Levi, but they sat in a museum in London for almost 100 years before scientists studied them.2 1

Spinops was named in 2011, making it a relatively new dinosaur even though its bones were found long ago.2 4

Scientists think Spinops lived about 76.5 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous period.2

Spinops is a centrosaurine ceratopsian, which means it is closely related to dinosaurs like Centrosaurus and Styracosaurus.2 1

The exact spot where Spinops was found has been lost, and scientists have not been able to relocate the quarry.2 1

AI-made picture of Spinops — An AI-made picture of how Spinops 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 Spinops

?How big was Spinops?

Spinops was about 4.5 metres long and weighed around 1.3 metric tons. That is roughly the size of a small car.2 3

?What did Spinops eat?

Spinops was a plant-eater. It used its beak to clip leaves and other plants.3

?When did Spinops live?

Spinops lived about 76 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous period. That's long before humans existed.3 2

?Why did Spinops have spikes on its frill?

Scientists think the spikes and hooks on Spinops's frill were for showing off, maybe to attract mates or scare rivals. The exact reason is not known for sure.1

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Spinops
Named by: Farke et al. 20114
Group: Horned dinos
Family / clade: Ceratopsidae4
Classification: Ornithischia > Ceratopsia > Ceratopsidae4
Age of the rocks: 84 to 72 million years (Campanian)4
Rock formations: Oldman4
Countries: Canada4
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database4
Discovery: Spinops was named in 2011 by Andrew A. Farke and colleagues. The fossils were collected in 1916 by Charles H. and Levi Sternberg in Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta, Canada, and were later studied at the Natural History Museum in London.2 1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure whether Spinops was a rare dinosaur or if more of its bones will be found in the future.1

Where the facts come from

A New Centrosaurine from the Late Cretaceous of Alberta, Canada, and the Evolution of Parietal Ornamentation in Horned Dinosaurs (bioone.org)
Spinops (en.wikipedia.org)
New horned dinosaur announced nearly 100 years after discovery (phys.org)
Spinops 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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