Two pint-sized relatives of Triceratops have been unearthed in Alberta, and the discovery has ignited real excitement. The location matters because Western Canada is a treasure trove of dinosaur fossils, and this find adds a striking new dimension to that legacy. The real intrigue, however, lies in the animals’ remarkably small size. The tiny bodies of these ceratopsians open questions about how horned dinosaurs diversified in the late Cretaceous and how life could take very different forms within the same family.
Each specimen measures roughly a meter in length, making them among the smallest ceratopsians ever discovered in North America and among the tiniest herbivorous dinosaurs known to science. This size range challenges assumptions about how ceratopsians grew and thrived, suggesting a broader spectrum of ecological roles and life strategies than previously imagined. The tiny animals would have occupied niches that demanded agility and compact builds, offering a window into the early stages of horned dinosaur evolution on the continent.
Two new species are named Unescopceratops koppelhusae and Gryphoceratops morrisoni. Although popular images may portray them as if they lived side by side, researchers caution that the two likely did not share space or time in the same ecosystems.
Estimates place Unescopceratops at about 75 million years ago and Gryphoceratops at roughly 83 million years ago, situating the finds in the late Cretaceous when horned dinosaurs flourished across parts of North America.
Even though both are small, Gryphoceratops was about two feet long, while Unescopceratops reached around six feet in length and weighed about 200 pounds. In terms of body plan, the larger species was still modest for its group, underscoring how varied these animals could be while remaining compact compared with their later, larger relatives.
These discoveries fill important gaps in the evolutionary history of small-bodied horned dinosaurs that lack the pronounced horns and frills seen in larger North American relatives like Triceratops. Although horned dinosaurs likely originated in Asia, the evidence from these finds suggests leptoceratopsids dispersed into North America and diversified here, with Gryphoceratops representing the earliest record of this group on the continent.
For hobbyists and curious readers, the takeaways are simple: paleontology is closer to home than you might expect, and careful, respectful exploration can spark real interest in ancient life.