Famous Horned Dinosaurs That Weren't Triceratops

Although Triceratops is by far the best-known horned or frilled dinosaur, it was far from the only ceratopsian of the Mesozoic Era. In fact, more horned dinosaurs have been discovered in North America over the past 20 years than any other type of dinosaur.

Below you'll find some ceratopsians that were every bit the equal of Triceratops, either in size or ornamentation, or as subjects of research by paleontologists.

Aquilops

Ceratopsians—horned, frilled dinosaurs—originated in early Cretaceous Asia where they were about the size of house cats and evolved to plus sizes only after they settled in North America, tens of millions of years later. The importance of the newly discovered, two-foot-long Aquilops ("eagle face") is that it lived in middle Cretaceous North America and, thus, represents an important link between early and late ceratopsian species.

Centrosaurus

Centrosaurus is the classic example of what paleontologists refer to as a "centrosaurine" ceratopsian, that is, a plant-eating dinosaur possessing large nasal horns and relatively short frills. This 20-foot-long, three-ton herbivore lived a few million years before Triceratops, and it was closely related to three other ceratopsians, Styracosaurus, Coronosaurus, and Spinops. Centrosaurus is represented by literally thousands of fossils, unearthed from massive "bonebeds" in Canada's Alberta province.

Koreaceratops

Discovered on the Korean peninsula, Koreaceratops has been described by some paleontologists as the world's first identified swimming dinosaur. This description relates to the dinosaur's "neural spines" jutting up from its tail, which would have helped propel this 25-pound ceratopsian through the water. Recently, though, more compelling evidence has been adduced for another swimming dinosaur, the much bigger (and much fiercer) Spinosaurus.

Kosmoceratops

The name Kosmoceratops is Greek for "ornate horned face," and that's a fitting description of this ceratopsian. Kosmoceratops was equipped with such evolutionary bells and whistles as a downward-folding frill and no fewer than 15 horns and horn-like structures of various shapes and sizes. This dinosaur evolved on Laramidia, a large island of western North America that was cut off from the mainstream of ceratopsian evolution during the late Cretaceous period. Such isolation can often explain unusual evolutionary variations.

Pachyrhinosaurus

You might recognize Pachyrhinosaurus (the "thick-nosed lizard") as the star of the late, unlamented Walking with Dinosaurs: The 3D Movie. Pachyrhinosaurus was one of the few late Cretaceous ceratopsians to lack a horn on its snout; all it had were two small, ornamental horns on either side of its enormous frill.

Pentaceratops

This "five-horned face" dinosaur really had only three horns, and the third horn (on the end of its snout) wasn't much to write home about. Pentaceratops' real claim to fame is that it possessed one of the largest heads of the entire Mesozoic Era: a whopping 10 feet long, from the top of its frill to the tip of its nose. That makes Pentaceratops' head even longer than that of the closely related Triceratops and presumably just as deadly when wielded in combat.

Protoceratops

Protoceratops was that rare beast of the Mesozoic Era, a mid-sized ceratopsian—not tiny like its predecessors (such as the five-pound Aquilops) or a gigantic four or five-ton behemoth (like its North American successors), but a pig-sized creature at only 400 or 500 pounds. As such, this made the central Asian Protoceratops an ideal prey animal for the contemporary Velociraptor. Paleontologists have identified a famous fossil of a Velociraptor locked in combat with a Protoceratops before both dinosaurs were buried by a sudden sandstorm.

Psittacosaurus

For decades, Psittacosaurus (the "parrot lizard") was one of the earliest identified ceratopsians, until the recent discovery of a handful of eastern Asian genera that predated this dinosaur by millions of years. As befitting a ceratopsian that lived during the early to middle Cretaceous period, Psittacosaurus lacked a significant horn or frill, to the extent that it took a while for paleontologists to identify it as a true ceratopsian and not an ornithischian dinosaur.

Styracosaurus

Closely related to Centrosaurus, Styracosaurus had one of the most distinctive heads of any ceratopsian, at least until the recent discovery of bizarre North American genera like Kosmoceratops and Mojoceratops. As with all ceratopsians, the horns and frill of Styracosaurus likely evolved as sexually selected characteristics: males with bigger, more elaborate, and more visible headgear had a better chance of intimidating their rivals in the herd and attracting available females during mating season.

Udanoceratops

The central Asian Udanoceratops was a one-ton contemporary of Protoceratops (meaning it was likely immune from the Velociraptor attacks that plagued its more famous relative). The oddest thing about this dinosaur, though, is that it may have walked occasionally on two legs, like the smaller ceratopsians that preceded it by millions of years.

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Strauss, Bob. "Famous Horned Dinosaurs That Weren't Triceratops." ThoughtCo, Aug. 11, 2024, thoughtco.com/famous-horned-dinosaurs-that-werent-triceratops-1093807. Strauss, Bob. (2024, August 11). Famous Horned Dinosaurs That Weren't Triceratops. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/famous-horned-dinosaurs-that-werent-triceratops-1093807 Strauss, Bob. "Famous Horned Dinosaurs That Weren't Triceratops." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/famous-horned-dinosaurs-that-werent-triceratops-1093807 (accessed April 4, 2025).