No I Did Not Mean Triceratops, I Meant Ceratops

Recently, the folks over at the Best Western Denver Southwest purchased yet another fossil cast for their amazing hotel!*  This time, the cast is of a skull nicknamed "Judith," a specimen that is referred by some paleontologists to the dinosaur genus Ceratops.  And, no, I didn't mean to say Triceratops.  Don't feel bad if you haven't heard of Ceratops montanus: as a matter of fact, I hadn't really heard of it either until several weeks ago, when Greg Tally informed me that the Morrison Natural History Museum would soon be receiving a very large box in the mail!  Judith is still in the Cretaceous Room here at the MNHM, where she will stay for at least a few more weeks.  I really didn't know much at all about this dinosaur, and was eager to learn more.  Unfortunately, there's not much out there, as Ceratops is based on just a few bones that were discovered in the late 1800s.  Despite the lack of material, Ceratops does have a pretty fascinating history, and is an incredibly important dinosaur; not because of what has been discovered about the fossils themselves, so much as what these fossils resulted in.

Greg Tally peers through one of the fenestrae (literally means "window" in Latin) in the skull of Judith, the Ceratops montanus skull for the hotel that is temporarily on display at the Morrison Museum.  Photo Credit: Greg and Meredith Tally

When it comes to giving an animal or a group of animals a scientific classification, there are a lot of hoops you have to jump through, and a bunch of rules you have to follow.  Sometimes, groups of animals are named after the best known and understood animal in that group.  For example, Stegosaurus is the genus of dinosaur that defined the group of animals called the stegosaurs, and Tyrannosaurus is the genus of dinosaur that defined the group of animals called the tyrannosaurs.  Sometimes, it isn't quite as simple.  Think about it this way: Las Vegas is easily the most famous city in Nevada, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who spent a significant portion of their childhood thinking that Las Vegas was the capital of Nevada.  However, it is Carson City that holds the official title of capital.  Even though Las Vegas receives much more attention than Carson City, the state of Nevada isn't simply going to change where its capital is, and to the best of my knowledge, a change like that never really happens.

Although that comparison was a bit of a stretch and had about as many holes as the skull of Chasmosaurus, I think you get my point.  The same thing goes for scientific names.  Although Triceratops is the best known individual of the dinosaurian group called the ceratopsians, this group is still called the ceratopsians, as opposed to being called the triceratopsians.  That's because it was Ceratops, and not Triceratops, that was described by scientists first.

Ceratops montanus, temporarily on display at the Morrison Natural History Museum.  Photo Credit: Greg and Meredith Tally

The year was 1888, and paleontology in western North America was still going strong.  We've talked about the Bone Wars between paleontologists Othniel Charles Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope before, and we are going to revisit Marsh in this post.  To maximize the number of fossils he could describe, Marsh called upon the talents of a large number of fossil collectors, including the always brilliant Arthur Lakes in Morrison, Colorado.  Another of these collectors was a man named John Bell Hatcher.  Although Hatcher should also be remembered for a large number of his contributions to paleontology, for our purposes here we remember Hatcher as the man who discovered Ceratops.  On a trip to a known dinosaur fossil site near the Judith River in Montana, Hatcher discovered a number of fossils.  One of these fossil discoveries was composed only of a pair of horn cores.

Doesn't sound like much, does it?  Well, truth be told, it wasn't, though it was enough for Marsh to realize that he had something new.  If you click HERE, you can view the two page paper that Marsh published in 1888 that briefly described this new discovery as an animal called "Ceratops montanus."  There are several things of interest that we should take away from this paper, some of which are:

1. Marsh originally suspected that this new creature was "nearly allied to Stegosaurus of the Jurassic, but differs especially in having had a pair of large horns on the upper part of the head."  Marsh got the location of the horns right, but the close relation to Stegosaurus.....not so much.  Given the enormously tiny sampling of bones he had to work with though, it's not a surprise that Marsh compared this new animal to something that he already knew a good deal about.  Keep in mind that this is the very first scientific description of a ceratopsian dinosaur, so Marsh just had to go off of what had already been discovered.  Which was nothing.
2. Marsh notes that the "position and direction" of the horns could be likened to the enormous Meiolania, an extinct turtle from Australia, as well as the lizards in the genus Phrynosomax, the horned lizards.  He also notes that amongst the dinosaurs, the "only known example of a similar structure....is the single median horn-core on the nasals of Ceratosaurus," a mid-sized theropod dinosaur from the Late Jurassic Morrison Formation.   
3. In 1887, the year before this paper was published, geologist Whitman Cross sent Marsh a pair of horn cores about two feet in length and six inches across at their widest point.  Discovered right smack dab in the middle of where Denver, Colorado is today, Cross relayed to Marsh that they had been discovered in beds of Cretaceous rock.  Marsh, however, decided that these horns must have belonged to some sort of enormous bison, and gave the horns the name "Bison alticornis."  Perhaps Marsh was still suffering from the misconception that the 1887 discovery was, indeed, an enormous extinct bison, as these 1887 Denver horn cores are not mentioned in the brief Ceratops paper.  It is mentioned, however, that if the horns were discovered "detached," their "resemblance in form and position of the posterior horn-cores to those of some of the ungulate mammals is very striking," and the horns would "naturally be referred to that group."  I have no evidence to support my hypothesis, but I wonder whether this comparison to the mammalian ungulates is insurance on the part of Marsh, as perhaps at this point he had recognized the true nature of the 1887 horn cores.  This is pure conjecture on my part, and is mostly irrelevant anyways, as in 1889 Marsh recognized the dinosaurian nature of the Denver cores, and referred them to the genus Ceratops.  Today, these horn cores are regarded as belonging to Triceratops.
4. Marsh mentions that several limb bones, vertebrae, and teeth were also found in the Ceratops horizon, as well as several bits of dermal armor, and states that he believes they also belonged to Ceratops.  Whether this is true or not I do not know, but what I do know to be false is Marsh's next sentence, in which he states that the bones "indicate a close affinity with Stegosaurus, which was probably the Jurassic ancestor of Ceratops."  The specimen is housed in the Smithsonian today, under the catalogue number USNM 2411.  A search through the online records of the Smithosonian shows that 2411 consists only of a partial skull, which seems to be consistent with what I've read in other sources.  I'm not sure whether these other skeletal elements mentioned above have found a definitive dinosaurian home, or whether their true owner is uncertain.  
5. The final paragraph is, in my opinion, inarguably the most important.  The paragraph reads as follows: "The remains at present referred to this genus, while resembling Stegosaurus in various important characters, appear to represent a distinct and highly specialized family, that may be called the Ceratopsidae."  In this paragraph, Marsh has created the group of dinosaurs that, more colloquially, we refer to as the ceratopsians.  Or, more colloquially than that, "those dinosaurs that look like Triceratops with those horns."

Ceratops was discovered in what scientists now call the Judith River Formation.  Several other ceratopsians have been discovered in this formation, and due to the small amount and fragmentary nature of the material that was originally described as Ceratops, most paleontologists consider the dinosaur to be a nomen dubium.  Nomen dubium pretty much means that the material is too fragmentary for it to be diagnostic, and can't really be used in the future to determine whether new specimens are the same as the original or not.  Whether or not the newly discovered Judith specimen currently on display at the Morrison Museum is, indeed, Ceratops is still up in the air, as the paper has not been published yet.  Almost all of my Ceratops knowledge is out on the table for all to see, so I am not going to speculate or attempt to draw conclusions about something that I don't really know enough about to have an informed opinion on.  Guess we will just have to wait and see!  In the meantime, come on by the Morrison Natural History Museum and the Best Western Denver Southwest to see Judith, and much more!

*If you've been living underground amongst worms and fossils for the last few months, you might not have heard of the hotel, so you can check out some incredible pictures of the best Best Western by clicking HERE and HERE.

Works Cited:

A New Hairdo for the Alpacas: An Article from the Wild Animal Sanctuary

Remember that post I did a few weeks back about the giant bears I saw at the Wild Animal Sanctuary in Colorado?  (If not, you can just click HERE to catch up).  Anyways, I thought it might be interesting to see if anyone at the sanctuary would be willing to do a guest post on the blog!  The person I corresponded with, however, said that all of the staff members are putting in 60-70 hours per week, and therefore are absolutely unavailable!  My correspondent did say that I could feel free to reprint some of the stories from the newsletters, and I thought that was a great idea!  In their last newsletter, they printed a story called "Summer's Here and It's Time for a New Hairdo," an article all about their fleet of shaved alpacas!  Since I thought these guys were totally awesome, I decided to reprint this story, as it is both interesting, educational, and really, really funny!  So please, enjoy, and make sure to check out the Wild Animal Sanctuary, and like their Facebook page by clicking HERE!  Also, be sure to check out their website by clicking HERE!  

It seems like everyone likes to observe the seasonal changes with some sort of personal change in their own life. It’s possible they are trying to mirror the change in landscape… or more likely, they’re trying to find a balance with nature. Sometimes this sort of thing can come in the form of a new wardrobe… and others might find balance by including more outdoor activities to get them in the groove.


Yet, whatever you like to do when the weather and daylight start to shift… there’s always one thing that pops up on an Alpaca’s springtime dance card – a trim and shave! Yep, that’s right, there’s nothing more refreshing than a late spring haircut to lift the spirits of an Alpaca - especially since wearing a winter coat in July or August can get a bit stuffy!

With this in mind, we started late last year trying to find a viable solution to our shearing needs for the 50+ Alpacas that live at the Sanctuary. Mind you, shearing one or two wouldn’t be so bad… but when you are looking at more than 200 fuzzy legs that happen to have big fuzzy bodies attached to them – one has to be realistic when it comes to planning how to get the shearing job done!

Luckily, through a myriad of connections talking with each other, we were able to find an Alpaca Ranch in Montana that routinely hires a professional shearer each spring to help lighten the load of their Alpacas. The Ranch owners offered to help the Sanctuary by paying for their shearer to come to the Sanctuary – along with the ranch’s own special team of Alpaca wranglers – in order to shear all of our Alpacas in the spring.

They were happy to share their expertise in the art of Alpaca wool management, and planned on taking the wool back to Montana to turn it into highdollar rugs. They then planned on sending some of the rugs down to us to sell in our gift shop… as well as retail the rest to clients that have been following their wool artistry for many years.

Well, April finally rolled around, and the out-of-state shearing party arrived as scheduled. However, the Sanctuary’s staff ended up having to jump in the middle of the Alpaca wrangling end of things when the ranch’s wranglers came up missing.

Actually, it turned out to be a good adaptation, since we were happy to participate in order to ensure our Alpaca’s visit with the barber turned out to be a positive one. Besides, they’re all so cute that it’s a pleasure to spend time amongst this curious flock!

We started early in the morning and worked with precision. We were able to have two areas where the Alpacas would be laid down to get shaved. As one would be getting his or her hair clipped… the other would be getting his or her hooves trimmed and teeth checked. 

The shearer spent the day swapping back and forth while the ranch owners and Sanctuary staff took care of all the oddities like wool collection and doing discretionary medical exams.

We ended up with some pretty slick-looking Alpacas… and they ended up feeling substantially lighter. Their final appearance was definitely charming, as most of them ended up looking more like “Pokey” – “Gumby’s” sidekick of a horse!

When it was all over, the ranchers were forced to spend some time trying to pack 50+ Alpaca’s worth of wool into a regular-sized Chevy van (which ended up being packed solid, floor to roof), while our dainty-looking heard of Alpacas trotted off into the sunset. It’s definitely a new season, and the Alpacas definitely have a new hairdo, so as far as we’re concerned… it feels like everything is in balance again! 

Did you like what you just read?  Well, make sure to check out the Wild Animal Sanctuary's newsletter page by clicking HERE!  Make sure to also like their Facebook page by clicking HERE, and to check out their website by clicking HERE!  

Bison: Up Close and Personal!

At one point on our Grand Teton/Yellowstone/Sun Valley driving trip in 2006, we went on a ranger-guided nature walk in Yellowstone.  As we were walking along the trail, the ranger told us a lot about the local wildlife, and mentioned at least a few times the dangers of confronting a bison.  The ranger led us into a small clearing surrounded by tree for a short break, when suddenly, a large bull bison wandered by right behind the ranger along the trail. 

A bison, right up close and personal on the path!  Photo Credit: Julie Neher

A bison, right up close and personal on the path!  Photo Credit: Julie Neher

Everyone froze, staring at the bison as it started blankly right back at us.  Fortunately, it was uninterested in us, and wandered on along the path, without increasing the "Bison Casualty Count" for that year!

Antlers Vs. Horns, Part 2: Horns

A horn, unlike an antler, is attached to an animal.  It consists of a bony core, a projection of the bone of an animal, and is covered by a layer of keratin (your fingernails are composed of keratin).  Also unlike an antler, that falls off easily and annually, a horn, if it is broken off, will never grow back the same way.  That is why poachers have to kill rhinos (who have horns) to actually take their horns, as opposed to just letting them fall off.

Many different types of animals have horns.  Let's take a look at a few of these creatures.

The members of the family "Giraffidae," which includes the giraffe and the okapi, both have horn-like things on their heads, called "ossicones."

The members of the family "Rhinocerotidae," or the rhinos, have horns that are composed solely of keratin, and do not have the bone core typical of many horns.  The horns of the rhinos also grow continuously.

Some of the members of the family "Chamaeleonidae," or the chameleons, often have horns projecting out of their skulls, which are covered in a layer of keratin.

And, of course, the members of the family "Ceratopsidae," a group of marginocephalian dinosaurs, have horns projecting out of their skulls. 
Below is a short list of some of the more famous Ceratopsian dinosaurs.

Famous examples of Ceratopsian Dinosaurs (or "Ceratopsians That I Have Heard Of):

1. Triceratops - (Colorado, Montana, and Wyoming, U.S.; Alberta and Saskatchewan, Canada)
2. Arrhincoceratops - (Alberta, Canada)
3. Torosaurus - (Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming, U.S.; Saskatchewan, Canada)
   
4. Monoclonius - (Montana, U.S.; Alberta, Canada)
5. Chasmosaurus - (Alberta, Canada)
   
6. Centrosaurus - (Alberta, Canada)
7. Styracosaurus - (Montana, U.S.; Alberta, Canada)
   
8. Achelousaurus - (Montana, U.S.)
9. Pentaceratops - (New Mexico, U.S.)
10. Vagaceratops - (Alberta, Canada)
    
11. Diabloceratops - (Utah, U.S.)
12. Albertaceratops - (Montana, U.S.; Alberta, Canada)
13. Einiosaurus - (Montana, U.S.)
14. Anchiceratops - (Alberta, Canada)
15. Mojoceratops - (Alberta and Saskatchewan, Canada)
16. Pachyrhinosaurus - (Alaska, U.S.; Alberta, Canada)
17. Kosmoceratops - (Utah, U.S.)
18. Medusaceratops (Montana, U.S.)
19. Utahceratops - (Utah, U.S.)

Keep in mind that the tusks seen in elephants, mammoths, walruses, and hippos, despite being superficially similar to horns, are actually greatly enlarged teeth!

23 Fact Tuesdays: Ceratosaurus, Octopi, Aye-aye, and More!

Introducing:  23 Fact Tuesdays!  I'm thinking that (possibly) each week, we can look at twenty-three different groups of....things....and we can learn a fun fact about them each week!  Many of these topics feature North America, as that is where both I and most of my readers reside, but other topics include penguins, fossil horses, fossil mammals, early humans, various fish and birds, dinosaurs, and many more!
Here they are!

Don't want to read all twenty-three!  Well, in my opinion, the best ones are 10, 14, 15, 17, 18, and 19!  Enjoy!

1.  Alaskan Mammals:  The Sitka black-tailed deer will graze on beach plants like dune grass and kelp during the lean season.

2.  Alaskan Fish:  The whitefish may fast for eight or nine months during the lean season, surviving off of their stored fat.

3.  Dinosaurs:  In 1883, Ceratosaurus was the first large meat eating, or Theropod, dinosaur skeleton that was discovered more than half complete.  The first skeleton was discovered in Colorado.

4.  Dinosaurian Contemporaries:  Lagosuchus was either the direct ancestor, or a close relative of the ancestor, of the dinosaurs.

5.  North American Birds of Prey:  The robin-sized American Kestrel is not only the smallest hawk in North America, but it is also the most common.

6.  Tideland Treasures of South Carolina:  The palmetto, which is the state tree of South Carolina, can live for 75 years, and grow to a height of 60 feet, with a 1 or 2 foot diameter.

7.  North American Mammals:  The least chipmunk, besides eating the usual rodent foods like nuts, will also dine on insects, and occasionally small vertebrates.

8.  North American Hoofed and Marine Mammals:  The sperm whale is the largest of the toothed whales.

9.  North American Birds:  The common goldeneye will often take over abandoned woodpecker nests.

10.  Fossil Mammals:  Despite the fact that primates no longer live in North America, many paleontologists think that they either evolved there or in Asia.

11.  Penguins:  Despite the fact that most people think of penguins living in cold, snowy climates, the king penguin typically forms colonies in the shelter of dense tussock grass.

12.  Fossil Horses:  One species of Hypohippus, H. osborni, had weak and infrequently used side toes.  Although not very exciting sounding, this is an important step from multi-toed horse ancestors to the one-toed horses that we know today. 

13.  Dinosaurs....Again!:  Ornithomimus, one of the "ostrich-dinosaurs," lived both in the states of Colorado and Montana, but also in the country of Tibet.

14.  Extreme Abilities:  In order to protect itself from various predators and to hunt its various prey, the amazing Indo-Malayan octopus can mimic an enormous variety of different animals, including flounder, sea snakes, crinoids, jellyfish, lionfish, hermit crabs, stingrays, brittlestars, stomatopods, and sea anemones, amongst many others.

15.  Extreme Movement:  Although this dude looks like a worm or something, the caecilian is actually a close relative of newts and salamanders.  It lives strictly underground, and is rarely seen, despite the fact that they can grow up to five feet long.

16.  Extreme Growth:  The ostrich is a serious record breaker amongst birds.  Not only does it when the tallest bird and heaviest bird awards, but it also is the fastest runner, has the biggest egg, and has the largest eyes.  In fact, the smallest bird on the planet, the tiny little bee hummingbird, could easily fit inside the eye of the ostrich!

 17.  Extreme Families:  The "Biggest Nest of Any Bird" Award goes to the orange-footed megapode, or the scrubfowl.  Although these nests are just on the ground (the biggest nests in trees are built by bald eagles), they are still very, very impressive.  On average, these nests can be 11.5 feet wide and 39 feet tall!  The biggest ever recorded, however, was a whopping 164 feet wide!

18.   Remarkable Mammals:  The aye-aye, possibly one of the creepiest looking animals in the natural world, is a type of lemur whose large incisor teeth grow continuously.

19.  Remarkable Birds:  Once thought to be the missing link between reptiles and birds, the South American Hoatzin hatches out of its egg with claws on its wing greatly resembling those of the ancient Late Jurassic bird Archaeopteryx.  These wing claws are not often, and maybe even never, found on birds today, with the obvious exception of the baby Hoatzin.  As the Hoatzin grows, its wing claws disappear.  

20.  Remarkable Fish:  The electric eel can discharge fifty volts from its body.

21.  Remarkable Reptiles and Amphibians:  The Cuban tree boa will position itself in small apertures in caves, striking with deadly accuracy at bats that fly out of the cave.  Remarkably, the snake will do this in complete darkness, somehow sensing where the bats are.

22.  Prehistoric Animals:  Like Lagosuchus, Effigia is another possible relative of the dinosaurs.

23.  The Evolution of Humans:  Homo heidelbergensis is thought to have been the last common ancestor between the Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) and us humans, Homo sapiens. 

Ginger Kathrens and the Morrison Museum

So last night my friend Masaki Kleinkopf and I were hoping to see Ginger Kathrens, a woman who is big on horses, and presented three fantastic episodes for the PBS show "Nature" about a specific horse named Cloud (as well as other wild horses in Montana), speak at the Colorado Horse Rescue.  However, despite the fact that we were told that it was going to be free, it was not.  There was a ten dollar entrance fee.  We decided not to go but, since, Ginger Kathrens lives and often works in Colorado, I will probably get another chance to meet her eventually. 

However, at my volunteer job thingy at the Morrison Natural History Museum, I got the opportunity to work with Dr. Robert Bakker again, as well as a few other really cool people, like Matt Mossbrucker, Guy, and John, as well as a few other volunteers.  I also had the pleasure of meeting a few really nice folks from Florida who come up to this area of Colorado for the summer.  All in all, it was a pretty fun day!

Both Bakker and the Florida Folks were able to confirm what I had as a porpoise rib.  I guess "confirm" is not really the right word, as I thought that it was a giant ground sloth tooth. 

OK, again, I would just like to point out how awesome it is that I get to work with Dr. Bakker.  Although by no means the only source, or the only place that would say this, but this list of the top ten most influential paleontologists lists Dr. Bakker as number two.  That's kind of a big deal!  Some very, very exciting stuff!

 http://dinosaurs.about.com/od/dinosaurdiscovery/tp/tenpaleontologists.htm
 
I am a little too tired to do an actual, legitimate post, but we will be back tomorrow with "ANIMAL SPOTLIGHT:  THE OKAPI."

Golden on Dwellable