Do you see any resemblance between the Nasutoceratops and modern day cattle? Look closely at the horns and their relation to the eyes. It's clear to me that as we bring these animals back to life, the connections between the past and the present... sharpen. And along with it, our understanding. This is what my science is all about. |
Nasutoceratops is a genus of ceratopsid dinosaur in the Jurassic World Evolution series. Originated from Late Cretaceous North America, it is known for its bull-like horn structure.
Nasutoceratops was first added to Evolution with Update 1.9. Its fossils are first unlocked at the start of the game then excavated from the Kaiparowits Formation.
History
During the Late Cretaceous period 65 million years ago, a herd of Nasutoceratops was migrating across a river with some individuals wallowing around the water.[1]
At an indeterminate point, several adult Nasutoceratops appeared in the wild after the events at the Lockwood Manor in 2018.[2] Over the course of the next year, two of them became a breeding pair, with their infant being the first dinosaur born on U.S. soil.[3]
In 2019, these three Nasutoceratops appeared at a campsite in Big Rock National Park, where they foraged for food, before coming into contact with an Allosaurus. The Allosaurus swiftly attacked the infant and injured the adult female before backing off following the arrival of the adult male Nasutoceratops. With the Allosaurus subsequently distracted by a group of campers, the Nasutoceratops family fled into the wild.[3]
Four years after the incident in Lockwood Manor, several Nasutoceratops were captured by illegal breeders alongside Triceratops and Sinoceratops, while others were taken to a sanctuary created by BioSyn.[1]
Characteristics
Measuring up to 7.6 meters in length and weighing over 1.5 tons, Nasutoceratops is a relatively small ceratopsid dinosaur, similar in size to other ceratopsians such as Triceratops and Sinoceratops, that existed in the southern United States during the Late Cretaceous period. Its name translates to "Large-Nosed Horned Face", a reference to the two large horns protruding from its skull similar to those of Triceratops, and its distinctive blunt snout. Unlike most of its fellow ceratopsians, Nasutoceratops is physically distinguished by its short yet thick snout with no nose horn. However, it has large, unique rounded horns above its eyes that extended out and forward, almost to the end of its beak-like mouth, resulting in similar facial features to modern cattle. These horns are the largest of the centrosaurine subfamily of ceratopsid dinosaurs.
Unlocked at the beginning of the game, Nasutoceratops has the most complex requirements of the early game ceratopsians, having higher overall enclosure and social needs than Triceratops and Sinoceratops.
Behaviour
Nasutoceratops are similar in many respects to other ceratopsid dinosaurs, sharing a similar comfort threshold to Triceratops, and benefiting from the same paleobotany preferences of Horsetails, Rotten Wood and Palms. Like other members of their family, they are capable of engaging in death duels with medium and large carnivores. However, they are considerably more social than other ceratopsians, preferring to live in large social groups numbering up to ten other Nasutoceratops, as well as mixed-species herds of up to twenty-five different dinosaurs. The Nasutoceratops' social needs require that it live alongside at least two other members of its species.
Nasutoceratops features an animation unique to itself when killing another dinosaur in a death duel. The animation varies from the typical killing blow done by other ceratopsians in that, rather than impaling and lifting a dinosaur off the ground with its horns, it will charge and then launch a defeated dinosaur into the air or knock them over depending on their weight.
Paleontology
Nasutoceratops is one of the most relatively recent dinosaur discoveries, with the first fossils discovered in 2006 in the Kaiparowits Formation, Utah, when geologist Eric Karl Lund unearthed a number of bones including a partial skull and several vertebrae as part of a project managed by the University of Utah. With Nasutoceratops estimated to grow nearly 4.6 m (15 ft) in length and weighing 1.5 t (3,306 lb), the holotype is notable in that it is nearly complete, consisting of almost the entire skull, with horns intact, alongside other body parts including forelimbs, and skin impressions. These skin impressions have revealed a trihexagonal tiling pattern of scales. The new genus was officially classified in 2013 given the generic name Nasutoceratops. Despite its resemblance to Triceratops, Nasutoceratops was more closely related to Styracosaurus and Sinoceratops, and its massive, hollow nose is unseen in any other ceratopsian. Its discovery, alongside that of Sinoceratops a few years earlier, showed paleontologists that that particular branch of ceratopsian dinosaurs, the centrosaurines, had a more complicated evolutive history that they had been assuming.
Paleoecology
Nasutoceratops lived during the Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous around 83 to 70 million years ago, in what is now the Kaiparowits Formation in Utah. During that time, the formation would have been a coastal region, lying on the border of the ancient Western Interior Seaway, a sea that split the North American continent, resulting in a coastal jungle climate. Nasutoceratops lived alongside species related to those of the Dinosaur Park Formation; including ankylosaurids, fellow ceratopsians Kosmoceratops and Utahceratops, hadrosaurs like Gryposaurus, and tyrannosaurids Teratophoneus and Albertosaurus, as well as marine reptiles such as crocodilians and turtles. Like many dinosaurs, Nasutoceratops' habitat was therefore a warm, wet and humid climate of this period provided plenty of vegetation for Nasutoceratops to feed on
Available genomes
Fossil icon | Dig site | Quality | Number available |
---|---|---|---|
Kaiparowits Formation | ā
ā ā ā ā ā ā ā ā ā |
2 6 12 8 |
Skins
Behind the scenes
The Nasutoceratops was created using the 3D model that was created for 2019's Battle at Big Rock by Industrial Light & Magic, as well as audio files provided by Universal Pictures to create the most authentic representation of the dinosaur.[4]
Gallery
References
- ā 1.0 1.1 Trevorrow, Colin. (Director). (2022). Jurassic World Dominion [Film]. Universal Pictures.
- ā Kreamer, S., Hammersley, A., Spielberg, S., Trevorrow, C., Marshall, F. (Executive Producers). (2024ā2024). Jurassic World Chaos Theory [TV series]. Universal Pictures; DreamWorks Animation Television.
- ā 3.0 3.1 Trevorrow, Colin. (Director). (2019). Battle at Big Rock [Short film]. Universal Pictures.
- ā Krupa, Daniel (May 16, 2018). HOW JURASSIC WORLD EVOLUTION MADE ITS T.REX - IGN FIRST IGN. Retrieved June 14, 2018
External links
- Nasutoceratops on Wikipedia