Centrosaurus apertus skeletal reconstruction.randomdinos on DeviantArthttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/https://www.deviantart.com/randomdinos/art/Centrosaurus-apertus-skeletal-reconstruction-919611823randomdinos

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Centrosaurus apertus skeletal reconstruction.

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Among the best-represented large dinosaurs, Centrosaurus is exceptional in having not only a complete articulated skeleton (AMNH 5351, a young adult) and several other well-preserved individuals, but also a massive haul of scattered bones from the Hilda mega-bonebed in Alberta. These sites indicate that the animals congregated in the hundreds to thousands, likely during seasonal migrations, to seek better feeding or nesting sites. Centrosaurs in these herds would've been distinguishable from each other by their headgear; some specimens have very small brow horns and forward-curved nasal horns, while others have large brow horns and backward-curving nasals, and examples inbetween, on top of varying kinds of epiparietals and episquamosals. Along with individual variation, this probably reflects ontogeny, with the oldest individuals having forward-curving horns, much like what we see in Triceratops.

Another discovery of interest is the presence of an advanced bone cancer on the hindlimb of one individual; aside from its implications for paleopathology, the disease was also debilitating in causing a limp and making the animal more vulnerable to predators, yet it survived for a long period before likely being killed in the same disaster that deposited the rest of the bonebed individuals. The sheer size of centrosaur herds would have made injured or sick individuals harder to pick off, but given that the infected individual would probably be left behind in a stampede, its survival raises the possibility that ceratopsid herds may have gathered to mob predators away from their wounded, as modern African buffalo are known to do.

References:
-Brown, B (1917). "A complete skeleton of the horned dinosaur Monoclonius, and description of a second skeleton showing skin impressions". Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History35: 709–716.
-Lull (1933). "A revision of the Ceratopsia or horned dinosaurs". Memoirs of the Peabody Museum of Natural History. Vol. 3. pp. 1–175.
-Sampson, S. D. (1994). "Two new horned dinosaurs (Ornithischia: Ceratopsidae) from the Upper Cretaceous Two Medicine Formation, Montana, USA". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 14(3).
-Sampson, S. D.; Ryan, M.J.; Tanke, D.H. (1997). "Craniofacial ontogeny in centrosaurine dinosaurs (Ornithischia: Ceratopsidae): taphonomic and behavioral phylogenetic implications"Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society121 (3): 293–337. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.1997.tb00340.x.
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Borkovic, B. (2013). Investigating Sexual Dimorphism in Ceratopsid Horncores (Unpublished master's thesis). University of Calgary, Calgary, AB. 
-Frederickson, J. A.; Tumarkin-Deratzian, A. R. (2014). "Craniofacial ontogeny in Centrosaurus apertus". PeerJ. 2: e252. doi:10.7717/peerj.252.
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Comments5
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nonavianvaranid's avatar

this is an unrelated question but what photo editor do you use to get your GDI results?



anyways nice skeletal