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:

The Dino Hotel Nears Completion! Part 1

You've probably heard me mention the Best Western Denver Southwest several times here on the blog: they are the folks who are changing their hotel into a dinosaur themed natural history museum/hotel extravaganza!  Well, the lobby is now complete, as is much of the rest of the dinosaur themed paraphernalia around the grounds!  Just a few more things are awaiting completion, but the hotel looks fantastic!  I thought I'd share some pictures of the hotel for you guys here!  For your information, the credit for all of the photos in this post goes to the Best Western Denver Southwest, unless it is otherwise noted or there is a stuffed Triceratops named Pyg in the picture!  But first, you should meet the stars of the hotel: the Tally family!

First, let's start on the outside of the hotel!  Here are the initial plans for the outside of the hotel:

And here is who greets you now when you walk inside: Stanley, the Stegosaurus!

Now, the lobby only just recently finished construction.  Until recently, the lobby entrance looked like this:

The lobby just finished construction and looks GREAT now, but first let's look at a few more construction pictures, just so you can get a feel for how far along everything has come!  First let's take a look at the pool!  In the far future, the room should be partially enclosed from the outdoors!

At the beginning of construction, this place looked like it does in the picture below with Meredith!

A few months later, we have their two children, Caroline and Joe Tally, talking about the future plans for the pool with a camera crew from the BBC!

Finally, here are some pictures of the pool from very recently, it is now finished!

At least, the pool itself is finished.  Sometime starting next year, the Tally's will be hiring someone to create a tile mosaic of some creatures that inhabited the Western Interior Seaway (which you can read more about HERE).  Oh....and did I forget to mention that the pool is in the shape of the seaway?  Pretty frickin' awesome if you ask me!

Now, a few pictures back, I mentioned that Joe and Caroline were talking to a BBC camera crew.  What was that all about?  Well, as you can imagine, this whole dinosaur hotel idea has been pretty popular to a whole lot of folks, and has made an appearance across a very wide range of media, one of which was a BBC story about it!  Check out the link HERE!  I also have several pictures of the filming!  First off, we have several pictures of the camera on Greg!

As you might have noticed in the video, the film crew also stopped at the Morrison Natural History Museum, my place of work!  There they interviewed the director and curator Matt Mossbrucker, and you can see a few of those pictures below!

Here the film crew watches as Matt excavates part of an Apatosaurus skull named Kevin upstairs in the lab!

Another big break for the hotel came from The Oatmeal!  We have a lot to cover here in this post so I won't take the time to delve into it myself, but you absolutely HAVE to check it out by clicking HERE: it is fantastic, I guarantee it!  These three screenshots below are credited to The Oatmeal!

It doesn't stop there, though!  The Tallys have also been featured in Entrepreneur magazine!  Here is a picture of the article, and you can read it yourself by clicking the link HERE!

And on the lighter side of things: have you ever heard of the popular YouTube series My Drunk Kitchen?  If not, make sure to check it out because it is hysterical: but especially make sure to check out the episode with the hotel and the museum in it!  Suffice it to say, the Tallys have definitely found their way down many different avenues of pop culture!

I don't really find it that surprising: what they're doing is freaking awesome!  Check out these murals that they are having painted on the back of the building!  The first one is a sort of walk through time, featuring all sorts of fun animals!  The close up below is of a prehistoric mammal called Uintatherium!

Here's another mural for you to check out:

As if that isn't enough awesome paleo art for you, hanging in the rooms will be copies of some of the watercolors made by an awesome paleontologist named Arthur Lakes who excavated a lot of cool things from the area, including some of the bones that we have in the museum!

There are also some awesome banners hanging on the poles outside the hotel!

These aren't the only reasons why the hotel is super cool, though: not by a long shot!  Usually every week, they have a Bird of Prey show and a Jungle Lady show!

First some pictures from the bird of prey shows!  First, a few pictures of Anne Price holding a barn owl!

Next, we have a picture of her holding a turkey vulture!

Next, we have Anne holding a Harris hawk, while Peter Reshetniak holds a great-horned owl!

 Here, Peter still holds the great-horned owl!

 Peter takes a turn with the Harris hawk!

Next, we have a picture of Peter holding a screech owl!

Finally, two kids are enthralled by the red-tailed hawk!

The Jungle Lady is really cool too, here are some pictures of the animals that she brings, too!  Here's Meredith with the albino Burmese python!

 And an albino hedgehog!

Here's a picture of a veiled chameleon named Prince Charming!

This post is really long: I am splitting it up into two parts!  Check back next time to learn about what REALLY makes the dinosaur hotel a DINOSAUR hotel!

Mr. Bones Visits the Morrison Natural History Museum!

Yesterday, Mr. Bones, a local dinosaur enthusiast who's created some amazing looking dinosaur skeleton suits, visited the Morrison Natural History Museum!  The museum was also visited by Greg and Meredith Tally and their children, the fantastic people who are renovating the Best Western Denver Southwest to be a dinosaur-themed hotel!  All of these folks were here to make a brief teaser sort of thing to promote both the dinosaur hotel and the Morrison Museum!  I took a little bit of video, as well as some pictures, so make sure to check them out here!

 Greg Tally is attacked by Mr. Bones!

 Running is useless!

 Just a little too big for the door!

Below, we have a picture of Greg Tally helping out with the cameraman and Mr. Bones!

If you want to see some video of the museum's encounter with Mr. Bones, check out the video below!

Here, we have some shots of Mr. Bones taking a swipe at the museum sign out on the road!

Kids LOVE Mr. Bones!

 One of his other suits, a Utahraptor!  All of the other shots are of him wearing his "Kindergarten Tyrannosaurus rex" suit!

 A size comparison between the two suits.

 Mr. Bones goes in for the kill!