Serendipaceratops Arthurcclarkei
"Serendipitous Horned Face... Arthur Clark"
I know most dinosaur nerds would say that this is an ankylosaur in appearance and not a ceratops. However its naming convention comes from the debate of the species that has persisted since discovery in the 1990s. When it was first discovered it was given this name as they believed it (the only bone we have being the forearm bone) belonged to an early ceratopsian similar to leptoceratops... But then others came along and said things like, "Ceratops aren't even found in Australia" and "That actually looks like a member of the Ankylosaur family*" and so its classification is all speculative until we are able to uncover more like it.
It's species name (arthurcclarkei) is in reference to the author of 2001: A Space Oddity, As he is a (allegedly) a dinosaur nerd and the guy who named the dinosaur is a fan (or friend) to the guy. So that's cool. Its fun to get creative with a design like this. Normally I want to try and make fun and bold takes on crests/mating displays a dinosaur could have, but with how speculative this design already is, I didn't want to push too far with what I was already pulling out my butt hole. :)
For those curious, I used a european pine marten as the color inspiration as it had existed in a region we theorize was similar to a coniferous forest. Plus I like the bold orange. *The bone closest resembles that of Minmi! A cute little parankylosaur.
I have full unintelligible insane ramblings of my research and design process over on my ko-fi. I'll also be streaming later today at 3PM PST at My Twitch













