NAME

Meaning - Zuniceratops means “Zuni horned head” - the Zuni are North American Indians
Pronounced - ZOO-nee-SAIR-a-tops
Named By - Douglas G. Wolfe and James I. Kirkland
When Named - 1998
DIET

Herbivore (plant-eater)
SIZE

Length - roughly 10-11 feet (3-3.5 m) long
Height - about 3.3 ft (1 m) tall at the hips
Weight - about 100-115 pounds (200-250 kg)
WHEN IT LIVED

Late middle Cretaceous period, about 93-89 million years ago
WHERE IT LIVED

Fossils have been found the Moreno Hill Formation, New Mexico, United States, North America.
FOSSILS

One Zuniceratops skull and a few other bones have been found. Zuniceratops was discovered in 1996 by Christopher James Wolfe (son of paleontologist Douglas G. Wolfe), who was 8 years old at the time.
CLASSIFICATION
  • Kingdom Animalia (animals)
  • Phylum Chordata (having a hollow nerve chord ending in a brain)
  • Class Archosauria (diapsids with socket-set teeth, etc.)
  • Order Ornithischia - bird-hipped dinosaurs (plant-eaters)
  • Suborder Marginocephalia - (meaning “fringed heads”)
  • Infraorder Ceratopsia (also called Ceratopia)
  • Family Coronosauria (horned dinosaurs)
  • Genus Zuniceratops
  • Species Z. christopheri (type species named by Wolfe and Kirkland, 1998)
INTERESTING FACTS

Zuniceratops is the earliest-known ceratopsian to have eyebrow horns. It also had a nasal horn.