Dinosaur, here is the lokiceratops, the giant (herbivore) that takes its name from the god Loki

Lokiceratops rangiformis: this was the name given to the dinosaur species recently discovered in the state of Montana, in the United States, a few kilometers south of the border with Canada. The discovery actually dates back to 2019, but the results of the reconstructions and analyzes were published a few days ago on PeerJ. The name, explain the authors of the study, is inspired by Lokia cunning and trickster god of Scandinavian mythology. The large horns of the Lokiceratops would in fact recall the blades used by Loki as weapons. The dinosaur skull is currently located in the Museum of Evolution in Maribo, IN Denmark.

A giant herbivore

As anticipated, the skull bone fragments were found in 2019. Once assembled, the authors of the research realized that it was a not yet known species of dinosaur, which probably lived around 78 million years ago. We are talking about a real giant: it is estimated that the lokiceratops was almost seven meters long and weighed approximately five tons. A “vegetarian” giant, since he ate plants.

It is the largest dinosaur ever discovered in North America among those belonging to the so-called “centrosaurines”, and its horns are also the largest ever described for this group. The lokiceratops, however, completely lacks the nasal horn that distinguishes most of its relatives.

“These skull ornaments are one of the keys to unlocking the diversity of horned dinosaurs and demonstrate that evolutionary selection for showy ornamentation contributed to the dizzying richness of Cretaceous ecosystems”, says Joseph Sertich, researcher at Colorado State University (United States) and lead author of the publication together with Mark Loewen, professor at the University of Utah (United States).

The function of the horns

According to Sertich, the horns of these dinosaurs performed a similar function to that of bird feathers, whose colors serve for mate selection or to make each individual species distinguishable from the others.

Lokiceratops was an ancestor of Triceratops, which arrived on the scene about 12 million years later. At that point, only two species of horned dinosaur existed in the region currently between Canada and Mexico, but the present study reveals that earlier eras were likely characterized by greater diversity: “The lokiceratops – concludes Loewen – helps us understand that we are only scratching the surface when it comes to diversity and relationships within the horned dinosaur family tree”.