[D] Bison alticornis
Describer
Marsh, 1887
Time
Cretaceous Late Maastrichtian
Classification
Ornithischia Genasauria Cerapoda Marginocephalia Ceratopia Neoceratopia Nomina Dubia
Diet
Herbivore
Fossilsite
Lance Formation, Wyoming, US
Info
Orbital horn cores. Bison alticornis is what Marsh originally called [Ceratops alticornis] and Triceratops alticornis (a species name that has priority over the name of the type species Triceratops horridus if it could be shown that they were synonymous)
The genus Bison is not and never was considered to be dinosaurian. Marsh originally referred the ceratopian horn cores to that genus because he at first did not imagine they belonged to a dinosaur. When he realized what they were, he corrected himelf by referring them to his own ceratopian genus Ceratops (type species Ceratops montanus) as [C. alticornis]. That was the first time the horn cores were considered dinosaurian.
It was Lull (in the big ceratopian monograph by Hatcher, Marsh & Lull , 1907) who referred the species to Triceratops as Triceratops alticornis. It\\\'s possible that Cope referred this species to Polyonaxas [P. alticornis]. Indeed, if it could be shown that the Triceratops alticornis horn cores belonged to a Triceratops horridus, the latter species name would have to be changed to Triceratops alticornis.
But so far it\\\'s impossible to identify the horn cores to the species level--and indeed to the generic level (they could well be Tororsaurus or Diceratops horn cores, for example)--so Triceratops horridus is safe, and Triceratops alticornis should for the present remain an isolated nomen dubium species within the genus Triceratops.
Marsh, 1887
Time
Cretaceous Late Maastrichtian
Classification
Ornithischia Genasauria Cerapoda Marginocephalia Ceratopia Neoceratopia Nomina Dubia
Diet
Herbivore
Fossilsite
Lance Formation, Wyoming, US
Info
Orbital horn cores. Bison alticornis is what Marsh originally called [Ceratops alticornis] and Triceratops alticornis (a species name that has priority over the name of the type species Triceratops horridus if it could be shown that they were synonymous)
The genus Bison is not and never was considered to be dinosaurian. Marsh originally referred the ceratopian horn cores to that genus because he at first did not imagine they belonged to a dinosaur. When he realized what they were, he corrected himelf by referring them to his own ceratopian genus Ceratops (type species Ceratops montanus) as [C. alticornis]. That was the first time the horn cores were considered dinosaurian.
It was Lull (in the big ceratopian monograph by Hatcher, Marsh & Lull , 1907) who referred the species to Triceratops as Triceratops alticornis. It\\\'s possible that Cope referred this species to Polyonaxas [P. alticornis]. Indeed, if it could be shown that the Triceratops alticornis horn cores belonged to a Triceratops horridus, the latter species name would have to be changed to Triceratops alticornis.
But so far it\\\'s impossible to identify the horn cores to the species level--and indeed to the generic level (they could well be Tororsaurus or Diceratops horn cores, for example)--so Triceratops horridus is safe, and Triceratops alticornis should for the present remain an isolated nomen dubium species within the genus Triceratops.