Styracosaurus

#11

by Kyle Morris on October 15, 2021

This “spiked lizard” was named in 1913 by Lawrence Lambe. They’ve been found in the Dinosaur Provincial Park in what is now called the Dinosaur Park Formation in Alberta, Canada, among other places. A bonebed of about 100 individuals was found in Arizona, indicating that this species likely lived and traveled in herds. Other specimens have also been found in Montana.

Styracosaurus

Artist Rendering of Styracosaurus

Styracosaurus is a ceratopsian dinosaur in the order Ornithischia. This herbivorous group is characterized by having large frills on the back of their skulls, and they usually have one or more horns.

Standing at approximately six feet tall (not including the tall spikes on its skull), Styracosaurus weighed about three tons (about as much as a black rhino) and reached lengths of up to 18 feet. It had four to six long spikes on its frill and a large nasal horn. Some individual’s horns could reach lengths of over two feet and could be six inches in diameter.

Did you know that Styracosaurus is in the same created kind as the famed Triceratops alongside most of if not all other ceratopsians? This means that Noah wouldn’t have needed two of each species of ceratopsian on the ark—just two representatives from their kind, a male and a female. And did you know that the biblical term kind is roughly equivalent to today’s “family” level of classification?

October is “dinosaur month!” Every weekday of this month, you can come back to our Kids site to read about my 20 favorite dinosaurs. I hope you’ll join me!