Serendipaceratops

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Serendipaceratops
Fossil range: Early Cretaceous

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Sauropsida
Superorder:	Dinosauria
Order:	Ornithischia
Infraorder:	Ceratopsia
Family:	?Protoceratopsidae
Genus:	Serendipaceratops Rich & Vickers-Rich, 2003

Species

S. arthurcclarkei Rich and Vickers-Rich, 2003 (type)

Serendipaceratops is a genus of early ceratopsian dinosaur from the early Cretaceous Period of Australia. Only about 2 meters (6 ft) long, it probably had only a very small neck frill and no horns, unlike the more familiar Triceratops.

The type species, S. arthurcclarkei, was named after Arthur C. Clarke, author of books such as 2001: A Space Odyssey and Rendezvous with Rama, who first became interested in science as a child because he became fascinated by dinosaurs. Perhaps coincidentally, Serendip is a former name for Sri Lanka, Clarke's adoptive country.

1 Classification
2 Discovery and species
3 Implications for Ceratopsia
4 References

[edit] Classification

Serendipaceratops was one of the earliest known ceratopsian dinosaurs; it is sometimes classified as a protoceratopsid. It is known only from one, or possibly two, ulnas; the first about 115 million years old. Another ceratopsian arm bone was also found at Dinosaur Cove, in south-west Victoria. It is a little younger at 106 million years old.

[edit] Discovery and species

The first known bone from Serendipaceratops was discovered in Australia near Kilcunda, on the south-east coast of Victoria, Australia. Initially, the discoverers, Tom Rich and Patricia Vickers-Rich, had not considered the possibility it may have been ceratopsian as at this would have been the last family of dinosaurs one would have expected to find evidence of in Australia. Instead they had tried to convince themselves it was a theropod bone. Some months later, however, on a visit to the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Alberta, Canada, they realised its striking similarity to the ulna of Leptoceratops. Hence the genus name, referring to serendipity.

[edit] Implications for Ceratopsia

Until this find, all ceratopsian fossil remains have come from the Northern Hemisphere (notwithstanding one other dubious collection (of Notoceratops in South America). The finding of a protoceratopsid dinosaur on the opposite side of the world and antedating its namesake by 50 million years is an intriguing one. However, to be fair, the family does have members on both the Asian and North American continents.