Skip to content
EntityQ137441· pop 19· linked from 149 articles

Chasmosaurinae

Sign in to save

Also known as Chasmosaurine, Chasmosaurines

Chasmosaurinae is a subfamily of ceratopsid dinosaurs. They were one of the most successful groups of herbivores of their time. Chasmosaurines appeared in the early Campanian, and became extinct, along with all other non-avian dinosaurs, during the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event. Broadly, the most distinguishing features of chasmosaurines are prominent brow horns and long frills lacking long spines; centrosaurines generally had short brow horns and relatively shorter frills, and often had long spines projecting from their frills.

Wikidata facts

Parent taxon
Ceratopsidae
Image
Chasmosaurus belli RTM 01.jpg
Show 7 more facts
Commons category
Chasmosaurinae
taxon rank
subfamily
taxon name
Chasmosaurinae
topic's main category
Category:Chasmosaurinae
start time
78000000-0
end time
66000000-0
location of discovery
Kaiparowits Formation
Sources (1)

via Wikidata · CC0

~4 min read

Encyclopedic overview

4 sections
Contents
  • Classification
  • See also
  • References
  • External links

Chasmosaurinae is a subfamily of ceratopsid dinosaurs. They were one of the most successful groups of herbivores of their time. Chasmosaurines appeared in the early Campanian, and became extinct, along with all other non-avian dinosaurs, during the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event. Broadly, the most distinguishing features of chasmosaurines are prominent brow horns and long frills lacking long spines; centrosaurines generally had short brow horns and relatively shorter frills, and often had long spines projecting from their frills.

Chasmosaurines evolved in western North America (Laramidia). They are currently known definitively from rocks in western Canada, the western United States, and northern Mexico. They were highly diverse and among the most species-rich groups of dinosaurs, with new species frequently described. This high diversity of named species is likely a result of the frill. The distinctive shape of the frill with the hornlets on its edges (epoccipitals) make it possible to recognize species from incomplete or fragmentary remains.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Chasmosaurinae” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.