Dinosaur with spiked head who roamed Canada 78 million years ago, was the oldest horned lizard, found in North America.

Herbivores called Xenoceratops foremostensis, that in translation from Latin means "rogatory alien from Formosa" (that is, a small town near which in 1958 was found the first fossils).

Like its more famous relative, Triceratops, who lived at 15 million years later, in the last days of the dinosaurs, Xenocrates had long copepoden horns sticking out straight from his forehead, and thyroid collar, former continuation of the skull. However, unlike Triceratops, ctenoceratoda were also horns on the collar.

New dinosaur known by the fragments of the skull and horns, found in Alberta. Michael Ryan from the Cleveland Museum of natural history (Canada) his colleagues found bones, has combed through the Canadian Museum of nature in Ontario in search of other fossils belonging to that period. They have found the remains of 1958, which were long since been shelved. They belonged to the same, yet described mind.

Xenocrates had to 6 meters long and weighed over two tons. For dinosaur is the average size: Triceratops was one and a half times. However, 80 million years ago, a new type was among the largest ceratopsids. In those days in Alberta reigned subtropical climate.

A frill of ctenoceratoda says that intricate skull jewelry developed in dinosaur very early, and over time, become more challenging. Before that, it was believed that they arose 65-75 million years ago.

Moreover, judging by everything, the family of ctenoceratoda and Triceratops - Centrosaurinae and Chasmosaurinae respectively - not so strongly varied at the dawn of its evolution.

The study is published in the publication of the Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences.

Prepared according to National Geographic.