[D] Chasmosaurus [sG]
Describer
Lambe, 1914
Time
Cretaceous Late Maastrichtian
Classification
Ornithischia Genasauria Cerapoda Marginocephalia Ceratopia Neoceratopia Ceratopidae Chasmosaurinae
Diet
Herbivore
Fossilsite
Canada
Fall Under
Chasmosaurus belli
Length
5 meter
Info
Chasmosaurus (Lambe, 1914) = Protorosaurus belli (Lambe, 1914)
Chasmosaurus > Chasmosaurus belli (Lambe, 1914) = Monoclonius belli (Lambe, 1902) >> Chasmosaurus brevirostris (Lull, 1933)
Chasmosaurus > Chasmosaurus russelli (Sternberg, 1940)
Chasmosaurus > Chasmosaurus canadensis (Lambe, 1902) = Monoclonius canadensis (Lambe, 1902)
The medium-sized chasmosaurine ceratopsid grew up to 4.9m (16ft) long and weighed about 2.2 tonnes. Skulls of many individuals have been discovered in western North America, where Chasmosaurus pre- dated its close relative Triceratops by several million years.
Chasmosaurus skull reveals that the ceratopsid had a small nose horn and two long brow horns rather like those of a cow. It had narrow, bony struts: scaffolding to support the frilland reduce its weight. Name has reference to the openings in the skull, more particularly to the great size of the intraparietal fontanelles\\\" in the frill; for a form supposedly ancestral to Tororsaurus. (To replace preoccupied Protorosaurus Lambe.)
In 1997 new scrappy material was described of juvenile chasmosaurines that question whether any real difference exists with the centrosaurines relative to the attachment of the frontal on the medial side of the postorbital. The juvenile chasmosaurines look like centrosaurines.