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Science is full of fun, as experts have just decided to combine a controversial comic book character with a 78 million year old Triceratops ancestor – a 3-horned dinosaur. Lokiceratops rangiformi is the new name added to the scientific dictionary.
This newly discovered dinosaur has one very special feature: a unique head ornament, with the largest horns ever seen. The species name, published in the scientific journal PeerJ, means “Loki’s reindeer-like horned face.”
Lokiceratops rangiformi rendered on computer by an artist
The dinosaur was found, identified, and named by Joseph Sertich of Colorado State University and Mark Loewen of the University of Utah. Both authors named the new species based on its unusual blade-shaped antlers behind its scapula — the bony shield at the back of its skull — and other asymmetrical antlers reminiscent of those on modern-day reindeer.
This particularity also evokes the image on the helmet of Loki, the charismatic trickster in Marvel comics and movies, a character inspired by a Norse god of the same name.
The fossil was found in 2019 on private land near the Canadian border in Montana. The reconstruction the researchers worked on was made from fragments the size of dinner plates or smaller. Once they assembled the skull, they realized it was a new species.
This reconstruction and identification work was described by the authors as the greatest challenge. “Describing the skull, one of the most detailed ever written, and comparing it to other horned dinosaurs from across the continent, took another year,” explains paleontologist Joseph Sertich.
Loki is believed to have lived around 78 million years ago and was around 6.7 metres long and weighed around 5 tonnes. During its existence – around 12 million years before its more famous relative, Triceratops – its home was an island continent called Laramidia, which is now North America.
Several specimens of the family Ceratopsidae – including Triceratops and Styracosaurus – have been found there.
Lokiceratops model drawn by artistLoki character in Norse mythology
“This is the first time that five species of horned dinosaurs have been found living in the same place and time,” Sertich said.