Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Sauropsida
Superorder: Dinosauria
Order: Ornithischia
Suborder: Marginocephalia
Infraorder: Ceratopsia
Family: Ceratopsidae
Subfamily: Centrosaurinae
Genus: Centrosaurus

Species: C. apertus

A standard-sized 75 million year old ceratopsian, C. apertus came in at a length of about 6m. Like all other members of its family, it had a herbivorous-adapted beak and teeth, a large neck frill, and facial modifications usually presenting as horns or bosses. In the case of C. apertus, it had a single, large horn on its nose, small horns over the eyes, and a serrated margin of bone along its frill. The very top projections on the frill curl downwards back onto the skull - an identifying morphology of the animal. C. apertus is also notable for being found in vast bonebeds, with many specimens having died simultaneously in large aggregations. Evidence indicates that these were herds that rapidly succumbed to some form of natural disaster.

Type Species: Centrosaurus apertus

Lambe, LM. (1904). Vertebrate Palaeontology. Geological Survey of Canada, Summary Report 1904.

Locality:

Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta, Canada.

Scientific Resources:

Currie, PJ; and Koppelhus, EB. (2005). Dinosaur Provincial Park: a Spectacular Ancient Ecosystem Revealed. Indiana University Press.

Ryan, MJ; and Russell, AP. (2005). A new centrosaurine ceratopsid from the Oldman Formation of Alberta and its implications for centrosaurine taxonomy and systematics. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences Vol. 42, No. 7, pp. 1369-1387.

Ryan, MJ; Russell, AP; Eberth, DA; and Currie, PJ. (2001). The Taphonomy of a Centrosaurus (Ornithischia: Certopsidae) Bone Bed from the Dinosaur Park Formation (Upper Campanian), Alberta, Canada, with Comments on Cranial Ontogeny. Palaios, Vol. 16, No. 5, pp. 482-506.