Diabloceratops eatoni, by PaleoPastori.
bloodypencil sketches
“Possessing brow horns and two nasal horns, Diabloceratops eatoni is the most primitive centrosaur described so far. It was discovered in 2002 by the Utah Geological Survey in the middle Campanian (~80 MA) Wahweap Formation in southern Utah. It took several years of excavation, with a helicoptor lift, and many hundreds of hours of preparation to reveal the beauty of this skull before it was described formally in 2010 by Jim Kirkland and its discoverer and preparator Don DeBlieux. Diabloceratops is unique in that, other than the long ornamental horns at the back of its narrow, upright frill, the horns on the side of the frill decrease in size from the front to the back. Additionally, the presence of an accessory antorbital fenestra or hole behind naries, shared by Zuniceratops indicates the origin of the large ceratopsids is not via Protoceratops, but through the less well know Bagaceratops and Magnirostra”.
Jim Kirkland
Utah State Paleontologist
Utah Geological Survey
