Regaliceratops

Regaliceratops is a genus of herbivorous ceratopsid dinosaur that lived during the late Cretaceous period, about 68 million years ago (Mya) in what is now Canada.[1][2]

Closely related to Triceratops, Regaliceratops was named for its plated frill, which its describers thought looked somewhat like a crown. In 2005, geologist Peter Hews discovered a skull at the Oldman River in Alberta. The fossil was secured by a team of the Royal Tyrrell Museum. The specimen was given the nickname "Hellboy" for its horns and the difficulty of removing it from the matrix.[3]

In 2015, Caleb Marshall Brown and Donald Henderson named and described the type species Regaliceratops peterhewsi. The generic name combines Latin regalis, "royal", a reference to both the crown-shaped neck shield and the "Royal" Tyrrell, with a Greek keras, "horn", and ops, "face". The specific name honours Hews.[1]

The holotype, TMP 2005.055.0001, was found in a layer of the St. Mary River Formation dating from the middle Maastrichtian, about 68 million years old. It consists of a rather complete skull of which the snout bone, the rostral, is lacking. The skull has been deformed by compression and its rear and underside are obscured by matrix.[1]

Regaliceratops was about five metres long, with an estimated weight of 1.5 tonnes.