Search Here

Researchers have discovered a new horned dinosaur that equipped a wing shaped headgear. The newly discovered dinosaur has been named  Mercuriceratops gemini. 

Researchers discovered dinosaur's fossils from Montana, United States and Alberta, Canada. 

According to the fossils, the new dinosaur was roughly 20 feet long and weighed more than two tons. Researchers believe that the creature roamed the land around 77 million years ago in the Late Cretaceous Period. 

"Mercuriceratops took a unique evolutionary path that shaped the large frill on the back of its skull into protruding wings like the decorative fins on classic 1950s cars. It definitively would have stood out from the herd during the Late Cretaceous. Horned dinosaurs in North America used their elaborate skull ornamentation to identify each other and to attract mates-not just for protection from predators. The wing-like protrusions on the sides of its frill may have offered male Mercuriceratops a competitive advantage in attracting mates," explained lead author Dr. Michael Ryan from The Cleveland Museum of Natural History in a recent statement.

"The butterfly-shaped frill, or neck shield, of Mercuriceratops is unlike anything we have seen before. Mercuriceratops shows that evolution gave rise to much greater variation in horned dinosaur headgear than we had previously suspected," said co-author Dr. David Evans, from the Royal Ontario Museum, according to RedOrbit. 

The study describing the new species is published online in the journal Naturwissenschaften.