New dinosaur named after top fossil hunter

Canadian scientists have discovered a new species of horned dinosaur — and they’ve named it after one of the country’s top fossil finders.

Wendiceratops pinhornensis was around six metres long, weighed more than a ton and had distinctive horn formations, according to new research from Toronto paleontologist Dr. David Evans, co-author of the study published in the journal PLOS ONE. “This is the last chapter in the story, where we get to officially welcome Wendiceratops into the dinosaur dictionary,” Evans says.

The dinosaur’s name — meaning “Wendy’s horned-face” — is a shout-out to globetrotting Alberta fossil hunter Wendy Sloboda.

Sloboda discovered the first Wendiceratops bones at a site in southern Alberta back in 2010.

Since the 1980s, Sloboda has found hundreds of fossils in sites across Canada, Mongolia, Argentina, France and Greenland. She says the researchers’ name choice for this find is a “huge honour.”

“They teased me about it over the years,” Sloboda says, adding she got a tattoo of her namesake just last week to celebrate.

“Wendy is a legend in Alberta for her ability to find fossils,” Evans says.

“She has a sixth sense . . . We joke in camp that we were Wendy’s cleanup crew.”

The discovery of Wendiceratops is important since it’s one of the oldestknown members of the Ceratopsid family — which also includes the well-known three-horned triceratops — according to Evans, curator of vertebrate paleontology at Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum.

“Wendiceratops is also just a remarkably amazing-looking dinosaur,” he adds. “It’s just a standout.” The wave of large, hook-like horns surrounding the periphery of its neck shield distinguishes it from other known species, Evans says, and hints at the rapid evolution of skull ornamentation around 80 million years ago.

Decades ago, the general consensus among paleontologists was these types of horns were used for defence, Evans notes. “You could imagine how they would be useful for fending off a predator,” he says. “But over the last century, a huge diversity of horned dinosaurs have been discovered.”

Now, researchers believe the ornamentation was typically used for social signalling and attracting potential mates.

Or, as Evans puts it, “showing off.” A full-size skeleton of the now-named Wendiceratops is currently on display at the ROM.