Scientists discover ‘largest and most ornate’ dinosaur species

Scientists discovered a new giant-horned and 'most ornate’ species of dinosaur named Lokiceratops rangiformis.

According to ABC News, a study published in the journal PeerJ on June 20 suggested that the researchers found fossils of the dinosaur, including a skull and a partial skeleton, on private land on Kennedy Coulee in the badlands of northern Montana near the US-Canada border.

Researchers found that Lokiceratops was approximately 22 feet long and weighed 11,000 pounds, a plant-eating dinosaur.

Dr. Joseph Sertich, a palaeontologist with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and co-lead author, told ABC News, “This is one of the most exciting dinosaurs I've had the privilege of working on. So, it has one of the neatest arrays of horns and spikes along the edge of its frill, including the largest share of horns ever seen along the edge of a frill.”

The palaeontologist further added, “It's also the largest member of its group of horned dinosaurs—one of the largest ever found in North America."

Utah. Dr. Mark Loewen, a palaeontologist at the Natural History Museum of Utah and co-lead author, says, “We laid them all out on a table and started to fit them back together. Turns out, they did fit together with a click, so they were just broken in the field before they were buried.”

Loewen explained, “What's interesting is that, as we pieced together the skull, it became very clear that this was a new dinosaur. We were seeing a dinosaur that no one in the world knew about for 78 million years."

Additionally, for the next six months, the skull bones of the dinosaur will be displayed at the Museum of Evolution in Maribo, Denmark, while a reconstruction of the skull will be displayed at the Natural History Museum of Utah in Salt Lake City.