Menefeeceratops

Menefeeceratops; Temporal range: Campanian, ; 83.5–80 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Clade:	Dinosauria
Order:	†Ornithischia
Suborder:	†Ceratopsia
Family:	†Ceratopsidae
Subfamily:	†Centrosaurinae
Genus:	†Menefeeceratops; Dalman et al., 2021
Type species
	†Menefeeceratops sealeyi; Dalman et al., 2021

Menefeeceratops (meaning "Menefee Formation horned face") is a genus of ceratopsid dinosaur from the Menefee Formation in New Mexico, United States. It is potentially the oldest known member of the ceratopsids, as well as the centrosaurine subfamily, related to animals including Yehuecauhceratops and Crittendenceratops. The type and only species is Menefeeceratops sealeyi, known from a partial, non-articulated skeleton.^[1]

Discovery and Naming[]

First described in scientific literature in 1997,^[2] Menefeeceratops was not given a name until it was revisited in 2021 by Sebastian Dalman, Peter Dodson, and colleagues. The holotype specimen, NMMNH P-25052, was discovered in the Cretaceous rocks of the Menefee Formation. Menefeeceratops is named from the location where the fossils were found, and in honor of Paul Sealey, the research associate at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science who discovered them in 1996.^[1]

Description[]

Size comparison

Based on comparisons with related animals including Styracosaurus, Vagaceratops, and Centrosaurus, Menefeeceratops is believed to have been approximately 4–4.5 metres (13–15 ft) long in life.^[1]