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A NEW species of horned dinosaur nicknamed Hellboy, after the comic book character, has been unveiled 10 years after it was discovered.
The dinosaur is believed to be a close relative of Triceratops, a three-horned frilled dinosaur that lived during the Mesozoic period. The size of the newly discovered dinosaur, the horns on its face and the shield-like frill at the back of the skull make it distinct from other species.
“The specimen comes from a geographic region of Alberta where we have not found horned dinosaurs before. So from the onset we knew it was important,” said Dr. Caleb Brown, in a statement. “When the full anatomy was uncovered, we realized it was obviously a new species and an unexpected one.”
According to researchers, the dinosaur is similar in many ways to Triceratops. The two dissimilarities that the team noticed was in the length of the nose horn and the two horns above the eyes. The nose horn was taller in the Hellboy, while the horns over its eyes were “almost comically small.”
The researchers suspect that there must be more horned dinosaurs that are yet to be discovered. The team plans to look for other new species as well.
The discovery has been reported in the journal Cell Biology.
Agencies/Canadajournal
