page_title: Styracosaurus
section_title: Classification
hierarchical_section_title: Styracosaurus / Classification
caption_attribution_description: English: Title: Hunting dinosaurs in the bad lands of the Red Deer River, Alberta, Canada; a sequel to The life of a fossil hunter Identifier: cu31924012130021 (find matches) Year: 1917 (1910s) Authors: Sternberg, Charles H. (Charles Hazelius), b. 1850 Subjects: Paleontology; Dinosaurs Publisher: Lawrence, Kan. , C. H. Sternberg Contributing Library: Cornell University Library Digitizing Sponsor: MSN View Book Page: Book Viewer About This Book: Catalog Entry View All Images: All Images From Book Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book. Text Appearing Before Image: ' Text Appearing After Image: Fig. 34.—Top view of Styracosaurus as prepared by Charles H. Sternberg. Page 104. Note About Images Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original work.
context_page_description: Styracosaurus is a genus of herbivorous ceratopsian dinosaur from the Cretaceous Period, about 75.5 to 75 million years ago. It had four to six long parietal spikes extending from its neck frill, a smaller jugal horn on each of its cheeks, and a single horn protruding from its nose, which may have been up to 60 centimetres long and 15 centimetres wide. The function or functions of the horns and frills have been debated for many years.
  Styracosaurus was a relatively large dinosaur, reaching lengths of 5.5 metres and weighing nearly 3 tonnes. It stood about 1.8 meters tall. Styracosaurus possessed four short legs and a bulky body. Its tail was rather short. The skull had a beak and shearing cheek teeth arranged in continuous dental batteries, suggesting that the animal sliced up plants. Like other ceratopsians, this dinosaur may have been a herd animal, travelling in large groups, as suggested by bonebeds.
  Named by Lawrence Lambe in 1913, Styracosaurus is a member of the Centrosaurinae. One species, S. albertensis, is currently assigned to Styracosaurus.
context_section_description: Styracosaurus is a member of the Centrosaurinae. Other members of the clade include Centrosaurus (from which the group takes its name), Pachyrhinosaurus, Avaceratops, Einiosaurus, Albertaceratops, Achelousaurus, Brachyceratops, and Monoclonius, although these last two are dubious. Because of the variation between species and even individual specimens of centrosaurines, there has been much debate over which genera and species are valid, particularly whether Centrosaurus and/or Monoclonius are valid genera, undiagnosable, or possibly members of the opposite sex. In 1996, Peter Dodson found enough variation between Centrosaurus, Styracosaurus, and Monoclonius to warrant separate genera, and that Styracosaurus resembled Centrosaurus more closely than either resembled Monoclonius. Dodson also believed one species of Monoclonius, M. nasicornis, may actually have been a female Styracosaurus. However, most other researchers have not accepted Monoclonius nasicornis as a female Styracosaurus, instead regarding it as a synonym of Centrosaurus apertus. While sexual dimorphism has been proposed for an earlier ceratopsian, Protoceratops, there is no firm evidence for sexual dimorphism in any ceratopsid.
  The cladogram depicted below represents a phylogenetic analysis by Chiba et al. (2017):
caption: Skull of the holotype specimen
exif: {}