Scientists unearth earliest horned dino in Alberta

Canadian scientists are showing off arecently discoveredkind of horned dinosaur that roamed southern Alberta 68 million years ago.

The specimen is now on display at the Royal Tyrrell Museum, about 140 kilometres northeast of Calgary, after two years of digging and 1½ years of reconstruction.

Featuring large orbital horns and a solid frill, the newly named Eotriceratops xerinsularis is the earliest known member — and possible ancestor — of the Triceratops group of dinosaurs.

Researchers from the museum in Drumheller, Alta., and Ottawa's Canadian Museum of Nature made the discovery in a canyon in Dry Island Buffalo Jump Provincial Park in central Alberta.

David Eberth, a senior research scientist at the Royal Tyrrell Museum, said that when scientists first saw the torn-up remains, they looked like roadkill.

"We thought, well, it's not a great-looking specimen," he recalled Thursday.

"But … we found it in a layer of rock where we'd never found any other dinosaurs — this is a horizon of rock that's about 68 million years old — and no matter where you go in North America we've got very little information about dinosaurs of that age."

Eberthsaid the Eotriceratops looked like a rhinoceros and lived in swampy areas in small herds.