Discover new dinosaurs

With horns sprouting on the forehead as large as an adult's arm, and the skull ' attaching ' to the dense frill of shark teeth, this ancient animal made the scientists terrified. But it was this bizarre appearance that was the key to the experts who identified this Triceratops as the missing link, a member never seen in the genealogy of the triceratops.

Called Alberta horned dinosaurs ( Albertaceratops nesmoi ), this 78-million-year-old animal was unearthed in 2001 by paleontologist Michael Ryan and a colleague of his in a barren region South Alberta, Canada. Ryan was initially puzzled by the animal's skull, because it had giant horns of three-horned dinosaurs but those pointed frills belonged to another species of triceratops called centrosaurs.

"We know there is a special creature that has never been seen before," said Ryan, who is currently in charge of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. 'That means that while the triceratops triceratops have giant horns, some species of centrosaurs are also available.'

And the combination of these peculiar features suggests that Albertaceratops is the most primitive species of the centrosaurs group, Ryan explained.

'This is undoubtedly an important discovery,' Peter Dodson, a paleontologist from the University of Pennsylvania, told Cleveland Plain Dealer . 'It is a kind of grandfather or great uncle of other real horny dinosaurs later.'

Professor Michael J. Ryan with the newly discovered dinosaur skull pattern - Albertaceratops nesmoi in southern Alberta, Canada (Photo: Sciencedaily)

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