He was roaming around northwestern New Mexico some 70 million years ago.
This week, he was reintroduced to the world.
Ojoceratops fowleri, one of the largest known horned dinosaurs, was actually discovered in 2005 in the Four Corners area in the Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness.
The discovery of the Ojoceratops fowleri bones, the events surrounding it and the details about the new ceratopsid dinosaur were released Thursday in a study published in the book The Horned Dinosaurs.
"Ojoceratops is a very distinctive beast," Robert M. Sullivan, senior curator of paleontology and geology at the State Museum of Pennsylvania, said in a news released issued by the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science. Sullivan led the series of expeditions to recover the bones.
The study on Ojoceratops fowleri was co-authored by Sullivan and Spencer G. Lucas, curator of geology at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science.
Sullivan described the dinosaur in the (Mechanicsburg, Pa.,) Patriot-News on Tuesday as a three-horned vegetarian bigger than a hippopotamus and smaller than an elephant, about 17 to 20 feet in length.
"Based on other bones, such as the lower jaw and predentary, found in the same rock formation, Ojoceratops rivaled the size of Torosaurus and some of the larger specimens of Triceratops," Lucas said.
The original discovery in 2005 was made by then-field assistant and current Montana State University Ph.D. student Denver Fowler.
The genus name (Ojoceratops) comes from the Ojo Alamo formation, the rock in which the new fossil was discovered. The species (fowleri) is named for Fowler.
You must register with a valid email address and use your real first-and-last name to comment on this forum. Once you've logged into the system, you'll be able to contribute comments. If you need help logging in or establishing your new user name and password, please write us.For information on our community guidelines and updating your username to meet standards, visit http://sfnm.co/sfnmforum.
All users are expected to abide by the forum rules and and be courteous to other users. Comments can be accepted up to eight days following publication. After that, comments can be read but no new submissions made. Send questions to webeditor@sfnewmexican.com
IMPORTANT: Comments must be posted under your own full, real name. Anonymous comments and those posted under a pseudonym can be removed. Please consult the forum rules. If you have questions, e-mail webeditor@sfnewmexican.com.