Harrisburg University of Science and Technology Professor Steven Jasinski was part of a group of researchers who recently named and described a newly discovered horned dinosaur species they say lived 72 million years ago.
It was the seventh time Jasinski has been able to help name a dinosaur.
According to a Harrisburg University news release, the newly discovered horned dinosaur from New Mexico named Sierraceratops turneri was described by Jasinski as well as researchers from the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science and the University of Bath.
The team’s findings were reported in a paper recently published in the journal “Cretaceous Research.” The research was published by Jasinski, Sebastian Dalman and Spencer Lucas of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science (NMMNHS), and Nick Longrich of the University of Bath.
This marks the second time in the last year that Jasinski, of HU’s Department of Environmental Science and Sustainability, has participated in the naming and describing of a newly discovered dinosaur, and is the seventh dinosaur species he has named, the news release said.
The discovery was made “in Late Cretaceous rocks of the Hall Lake Formation near Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, on a ranch owned by Ted Turner, founder of the Cable News Network.” The fossil bones were collected by scientists and volunteers from the NMMNHS, according to the HU news release.
Some key distinguishing features of Sierraceratops include the “shape of its short but massive horns and its distinct bones in the frill known as the squamosal and parietal,” the release explained.
Harrisburg University noted that a wave of new dinosaur species has emerged from North America in recent years, which includes the discovery of Sierraceratops. The team’s paper describing the horned dinosaur can be reviewed at this link.
Jasinski and researchers from the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, and the University of Pennsylvania, also recently named and described another new horned dinosaur discovered in New Mexico. It’s the dinosaur species Menefeeceratops sealeyi, according to the HU news release.
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