Dinosaur had impressive schnoz
Fossils found in Utah reveal geographic segregation of horned species
HOOK-NOSED DINO The recently discovered Nasutoceratops titusi was a big-nosed horned dinosaur that lived 76 million years ago in what is now Utah. At the time, the region was forested, as this artist's reconstruction shows.
Raúl Martín
A newly discovered dinosaur species was the Cyrano de Bergerac of its time. The beast, a horned dinosaur like Triceratops, had an especially large snout, scientists report July 17 in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
First unearthed in 2006 in Utah, the big-nosed Nasutoceratops titusi also had unusually long, curved horns that grew about a meter long and a simple bony frill behind its head that lacked the fancy hooks or spikes found in some other horned species. These features indicate that N. titusi belonged to a previously unknown group of horned dinosaurs, say Scott Sampson of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and colleagues.
