Pentaceratops

Pentaceratops is a genus of herbivorous ceratopsid dinosaur from the late Cretaceous Period of what is now North America. Fossils of this animal were first discovered in 1921, but the genus was named in 1923 when its type species, Pentaceratops sternbergii, was described. Pentaceratops lived around 76–73 million years ago, its remains having been mostly found in the Kirtland Formation in the San Juan Basin in New Mexico. Another species, P. aquilonius, was named by Nick W. Longrich in 2014, but it is debated if it belongs to that genus or a separate taxon. About a dozen skulls and skeletons have been uncovered, so anatomical understanding of Pentaceratops is fairly complete. One exceptionally large specimen later became its own genus, Titanoceratops, due to its more derived morphology, similarities to Triceratops, and lack of unique characteristics shared with Pentaceratops.

Pentaceratops

Osborn, Henry Fairfield, 1857-1935. Sternberg, Charles H. (Charles Hazelius), b. 1850. · Public Domain · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
ChasmosaurinaePBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Ceratopsia
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Ceratopsia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Ornithischia
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Ceratopsia
Length
6.8 mWikidata

Time the record covers

At most 18 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 83.6 Mya and 66 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Late Cretaceous — about 14 of 14 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 14 occurrences84–83 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences83–83 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences83–82 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences82–82 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences82–81 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences81–80 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences80–80 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences80–79 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences79–79 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences79–78 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences78–77 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences77–77 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences77–76 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences76–75 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences75–75 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences75–74 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences74–74 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences74–73 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences73–72 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences72–72 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences72–71 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences71–70 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences70–70 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences70–69 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences69–69 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences69–68 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences68–67 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences67–67 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences67–66 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences66–66 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences84.1 Mya65.5 Mya

14 occurrences of Pentaceratops on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

14 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

4 formations

Fruitland — 36.29°N, 108.23°WFruitland — 36.15°N, 107.98°WFruitland — 36.21°N, 108.08°WFruitland — 36.31°N, 108.08°WFruitland — 36.10°N, 108.08°WKirtland — 36.19°N, 107.89°WKirtland — 36.29°N, 108.23°WKirtland — 36.39°N, 108.11°WKirtland — 36.29°N, 108.55°WWilliams Fork — 40.03°N, 108.85°WAguja — 29.25°N, 103.25°W

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The named rock units Pentaceratops has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Pentaceratops and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Pentaceratops and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

17 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 14 sites for Pentaceratops, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

8 references

Each of the 14 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Pentaceratops

Credit
Osborn, Henry Fairfield, 1857-1935. Sternberg, Charles H. (Charles Hazelius), b. 1850.
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itChasmosaurinae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Osborn 1923