Avaceratops

Avaceratops is a genus of small herbivorous ceratopsian dinosaurs, which means they had horns and frills on their heads.

They lived during the late Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous Period, about 80 to 75 million years ago, in what are now the Northwest United States.

Most fossils of Avaceratops come from the Judith River Formation in Montana.

The first remains of Avaceratops were found by Eddie Cole in 1981, on the land of a rancher named Arthur J.Lammers.

The fossil was named after Cole's wife, Ava, and the Lammers family.

It was described by Peter Dodson in 1986, as the type species Avaceratops lammersi.

Avaceratops was about 2.3 meters long and weighed about 200 kilograms.

It had a large horn on its nose and a short frill around its face, but no horns on its brow.

It also had a beak and rows of teeth for slicing plants.

It was probably a social animal that lived in herds and defended itself from predators like tyrannosaurs with its horn and frill.

Avaceratops belongs to the subfamily Centrosaurinae within the family Ceratopsidae.

It is closely related to other centrosaurines like Nasutoceratops, Diabloceratops, and Styracosaurus.

It is one of the earliest and most primitive members of this group, and shows some features that are more similar to the basal ceratopsians like Psittacosaurus and Protoceratops.

Avaceratops is a rare and poorly known dinosaur, as only a few specimens have been found, mostly incomplete skulls and fragments of skeletons.

More discoveries are needed to fully understand its anatomy, behavior, and evolution.