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| Navajoceratops sullivani & Terminocavus sealeyi
Fowler & Fowler, 2020
DOI: 10.7717/peerj.9251
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Abstract
Three new chasmosaurines from the Kirtland Formation (~75.0–73.4 Ma), New Mexico, form morphological and stratigraphic intermediates between Pentaceratops (~74.7–75 Ma, Fruitland Formation, New Mexico) and Anchiceratops (~72–71 Ma, Horseshoe Canyon Formation, Alberta). The new specimens exhibit gradual enclosure of the parietal embayment that characterizes Pentaceratops, providing support for the phylogenetic hypothesis that Pentaceratops and Anchiceratops are closely related. This stepwise change of morphologic characters observed in chasmosaurine taxa that do not overlap stratigraphically is supportive of evolution by anagenesis. Recently published hypotheses that place Pentaceratops and Anchiceratops into separate clades are not supported. This phylogenetic relationship demonstrates unrestricted movement of large-bodied taxa between hitherto purported northern and southern provinces in the late Campanian, weakening support for the hypothesis of extreme faunal provincialism in the Late Cretaceous Western Interior.
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| Subtle differences in the frill shape distinguish between different species of chasmosaurine ceratopsids.
Illustration: Robert Boessenecker
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Systematic Paleontology
DINOSAURIA Owen, 1842, sensu Padian & May, 1993
ORNITHISCHIA Seeley, 1887, sensu Sereno, 1998
CERATOPSIA Marsh, 1890, sensu Dodson, 1997
CERATOPSIDAE Marsh, 1888, sensu Sereno, 1998
CHASMOSAURINAE Lambe, 1915, sensu Dodson, Forster & Sampson, 2004
Pentaceratops sternbergii (Osborn, 1923)
Type specimen - AMNH 6325 (Osborn, 1923), nearly complete skull, missing the mandible and the posterior half of the parietal and squamosals.
Referred specimens - AMNH 1624, nearly complete skull, missing mandible and the medial part of the parietal; AMNH 1625, nearly complete frill, missing anterior end of the parietal and right squamosal, and most of the left squamosal. Referred to as cf. Pentaceratops sternbergii.
Locality and Stratigraphy - AMNH 6325, 1624, and 1625 were all collected by C.H. Sternberg in 1922 and 1923 from the Fruitland Formation, San Juan Basin, New Mexico (Figs. 1 and 2; see Supporting Information 1 for discussion).
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| Figure 4: Navajoceratops sullivani holotype SMP VP-1500 parietal. Dorsal (A) and ventral (B) views. Cross section of median bar (mb) illustrated on dorsal view. Ep1 mostly removed during extraction or preparation (see Fig. S4 for original extent). em, median embayment of the posterior bar; ep, epiparietal loci numbered by hypothesized position (no epiossifications are fused to this specimen); f, parietal fenestra; L-lr/R-lr, Left/Right lateral rami of the posterior bar; te, tapering lateral edges of the median bar.
Scalebar = 10 cm. Reconstruction adapted from Lehman (1998).
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Navajoceratops sullivani gen. et sp. nov.
Etymology - Navajoceratops, “Navajo horned face”, after the Navajo people indigenous to the San Juan Basin; sullivani, after Dr. Robert M. Sullivan, leader of the SMP expeditions to the San Juan Basin that recovered the holotype.
Holotype - SMP VP-1500; parietal, squamosal fragments, fused jugal-epijugal, other unidentified cranial fragments. Collected in 2002 by Robert M. Sullivan, Denver W. Fowler, Justin A. Spielmann, and Arjan Boere.
Diagnosis - Can be distinguished from aff. Pentaceratops n. sp. by the following characters: Lateral rami of the parietal posterior bar meet medially at a more acute angle (~60°, rather than 87 or 88°; KUVP 16100, MNA Pl.1747, respectively). Median embayment of the parietal posterior bar especially deep, extending anterior to the posteriormost extent of the parietal fenestrae (which consequently overlap anteroposteriorly slightly with ep2).
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| Figure 5: Terminocavus sealeyi holotype NMMNH P-27468 parietal. Dorsal (A) and ventral (B) views. Paired ep1 are deflected dorsally. em, median embayment of the posterior bar; ep, epiparietal loci numbered by hypothesized position (no epiossifications are fused to this specimen); f, parietal fenestra; lb, lateral bar; L-lr/R-lr, Left/Right lateral rami of the posterior bar; mb, median bar; te, tapering lateral edges of the median bar.
Scalebar = 10 cm. Reconstruction adapted from Lehman (1998).
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Terminocavus sealeyi gen. et sp. nov.
Etymology - Terminocavus, “coming to the end of (or “last stop for”, as in a train terminus) the cavity” after the nearly-closed parietal embayment; sealeyi after Paul Sealey who discovered the holotype specimen.
Holotype - NMMNH P-27468; parietal, partial squamosal, jugal, epijugal, partial quadratojugal, partial sacrum, vertebral fragments. Collected in 1997 by Paul Sealey.
Diagnosis - Differs from Navajoceratops holotype SMP VP-1500 by the following characters: Posterior bar flattened and plate-like (i.e., not bar-like). Lateral rami of the parietal posterior bar strongly expanded anteroposteriorly both medially and laterally. Maximum anteroposterior thickness of the posterior bar ~35% of the parietal maximum width (compared with <30% in Navajoceratops and ~19–30% in aff. Pentaceratops n. sp.). Median embayment of the posterior bar narrower and more notch-like. Parietal fenestrae subrounded rather than subangular.
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Conclusions:
Description of the new taxa Navajoceratops sullivani and Terminocavus sealeyi, and the fragmentary Taxon C, provides critical stratigraphic and morphologic links between the Campanian Pentaceratops, and the Maastrichtian Anchiceratops, reinstating the phylogenetic hypothesis originally postulated by Lehman (1993, 1998). Combined with significant revision of other chasmosaurine taxa, this reveals a deep split of the Chasmosaurinae into Chasmosaurus and Pentaceratops clades. Morphological divergence from similar basal forms suggests the clades diverged from a common ancestor probably in the early Campanian.
Analysis of paleogeographic maps suggest that high sea level in the Santonian through to middle Campanian may have acted as an agent of vicariance, separating an ancestral chasmosaurine population into northern and southern subpopulations which over time led to divergence and speciation. This lends support to recent hypotheses of latitudinally arrayed differences in terrestrial faunal composition (e.g., Lehman, 1987, 1997, 2001), but stops short of supporting basinal-level endemism in the middle to late Campanian (e.g., Sampson et al., 2010).
Description of the new material places San Juan Basin chasmosaurines as among the best documented of their clade, second only to Triceratops in number of specimens and quality of accompanying data.
Although this work presents significant revision of many chasmosaurine taxa, much reanalysis and redescription remains. Inclusion of more recently described taxa and separation of problematic taxa and specimens (see Supporting Information 1) will be attempted in forthcoming manuscripts based on Fry (2015) and Fowler & Freedman Fowler (2017).
Denver W. Fowler and Elizabeth A. Freedman Fowler. 2020. Transitional Evolutionary Forms in Chasmosaurine Ceratopsid Dinosaurs: Evidence from the Campanian of New Mexico. PeerJ. 8:e9251. DOI: 10.7717/peerj.9251
TWO NEW TRANSITIONAL SPECIES FILL IN MISSING LINKS IN THE EVOLUTIONARY HISTORY OF HORNED DINOSAURS
