Xenoceratops

Xenoceratops is a genus of centrosaurine ceratopsid dinosaur known from the Late Cretaceous (middle Campanian stage) of Alberta, Canada. The genus has one known species, Xenoceratops foremostensis. Its remains were discovered in the Foremost Formation.

Etymology
Xenoceratops is named from the Greek xenos, meaning foreign, and ceratops, meaning horned face. The combination is in reference to the lack of ceratopsian species known from the Foremost Formation. The specific ephithet foremostensis is named after the town of Foremost, Alberta.

Discovery
In 1958, Wann Langston, Jr. excavated skull fragments from the Foremost Formation near Foremost, Alberta.[2][3] The formation is very poorly understood in regards to dinosaur fauna;[4] aside from teeth, only hadrosaur skeletons and the pachycephalosaurid Colepiocephale have been reported.[1]

Langston stored the fragments in cabinets at the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa. Around 2003, David C. Evans and Michael J. Ryan became curious about the specimens, and more thorough investigation was conducted in 2009.[3] They discovered it to be a new species and genus, and it was described in 2012 by Ryan, Evans and Kieran M. Shepherd.[4]

At the time of discovery, Xenoceratops foremostensis is the oldest known taxon of ceratopsid dinosaur in Canada.[1] It is also the first ceratopsian described from the Foremost Formation in Alberta.