Styracosaurus: Cretaceous Ceratopsian

Styracosaurus was a large ceratopsian dinosaur that lived during the late Cretaceous Period. It reached lengths of around 18 feet and could weigh an estimated three tons. Built like a rhino, it was about six feet tall at the shoulders and could have looked a man in the eye. Fossils of styracosaurus have been unearthed in the rich fossil beds of Montana and Alberta, Canada.

The most striking feature of styracosaurus is the presence of many sharp horns radiating outward from its characteristic ceratopsian frill. Other ceratopsians like monoclonius or triceratops merely had a bony frill at the posterior region of their head that was smooth and had no projections on it. These spikes were probably designed to help defend the animal against attack. Any therapod would be wary of attacking a thrashing styracosaurus head or body with so many potentially fatal spikes being swung around. Also, these spikes might have been used as a courtship display. The males with the largest spikes could potentially win a female over a male with shorter spikes during the mating season. In addition to the frill spikes, styracosaurus also had an unusually long horn on its snout (up to two feet long), much longer than that of triceratops or even monoclonius. Like all ceratopsians, styracosaurus had a thick, barrel-shaped body with very short legs, a huge skull, and a thick, stubby tail.

Styracosaurus probably fed in a manner similar to other ceratopsians. It possessed a large, toothless beak at the end of its skull which was undoubtedly used for snipping vegetation off of low-hanging trees and shrubs during the Cretaceous. Developed cheek teeth helped the animal grind up the food before swallowing it. Like other large herbivores and due to evidence of several animals in the same fossil beds, it is possible that styracosaurus moved about in herds. This technique is very effective for finding new areas of vegetation as well as having strength in numbers to defend young against predators. Large therapods like tyrannosaurus rex were present during this time and location in Cretaceous North America.

Styracosaurus was slightly more intelligent than other plant-eating dinosaurs but was likely still much less smart than the carnivores around at the time. It is possible that it could have moved quickly over short distances, using its bulk to add momentum to the locomotion of its short legs, much like a modern rhino. If it were to charge another dinosaur and connect with its head, it could probably wreak some devastating effects on an attacker.

This ceratopsian was one of the last genus of that family to evolve and either died out shortly before or during the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction.