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A slightly different take on Wendiceratops

This piece is the result of having too much time to sit and think during lockdown 2020. Wendiceratops is a centrosaurine from the lowermost section of the Oldman Formation on the Canadian side of the Montana/Alberta border. It's not one that gets brought up or mentioned a whole lot, but the few bits of art you see of it always show it with large brow horns, even Danielle Dufault's beautiful rendition in the original species description shows it with large brow horns. This is totally reasonable for a basal centrosaurine (i.e. a non-Eucentrosaur). But, there's an issue. In phylogenetic analyses Wendiceratops consistently groups as the sister taxon to Sinoceratops. The known fossils of Sinoceratops, while incompletely preserved, definitively show that it had no brow horns, only a couple tiny bumps. Furthermore, within the description of Wendiceratops the authors note that "Unfortunately, most of the braincase (...) and the postorbital have not been recovered." (Evans & Ryan 2015 pg. 9). Therefore, given the lack of postorbital material and the sister relation to Sinoceratops it would be most parsimonious to reconstruct Wendiceratops without brow horns. So that's what I did!

As for how well I executed that idea, well... It's not my best. I was still rather new to digital art at the time, and this was one of the first I had done that wasn't simply tracing over a photo of the bones and adding a little soft tissue. I had to wrangle with perspectives and angles that were unfamiliar, and I even tried to create a scaly effect with one of the 'dot splatter' tools. It turned out much darker, muddier, and less defined than I wanted, and I apparently didn't have a great grasp on how the forearm and chest muscles attached. A neat hypothesis but not so great execution.

References:

Wendiceratops description:

Evans, D. C. & Ryan, M. J. (2015) Cranial Anatomy of Wendiceratops pinhornensis gen. et sp. nov., a Centrosaurine Ceratopsid (Dinosauria: Ornithischia) from the Oldman Formation (Campanian), Alberta, Canada, and the Evolution of Ceratopsid Nasal Ornamentation. PLoS ONE 10(7): e0130007. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0130007

Sinoceratops description:

Xu, X., et. al. (2010) First Ceratopsid Dinosaur from China and its Biogeographical Implications. Chinese Science Bulletin, 55(16), pg. 1631-1635. doi: 10.1007/s11434-009-3614-5

thehappylittlesmilodon

Sir this is a Wendiceratops

(design wholly inspired by this:

cleverbunnycompany

New tote bag design request: Wendiceratops!

A Late Cretaceous Ceratopsian dinosaur from Canada! Its name means “Wendy's horned-face”, after the fossil hunter Wendy Sloboda, who discovered the bone site.

solferreralua

DINOSAUR PRINCEZAM!! He's a Wendiceratops! I also added Spinosaurus Zam as a treat because it's his favourite dino. But imma be so honest Zam you're NOT Spino coded.. you don't got that aura bro /silly

topios

A bit of self reflection.

rmyers08

Day 24 (wow, still going? Cool!): #drawdinovember2017 #wendiceratops pushes with its full weight against another trunk, scraping away sheets of bark and all but toppling the tree. The swamp is full of trees similarly beaten, marking the dinosaur’s territory. ………………… #cretaceous #canada #oldmanformation #dinosaur #marginocephalian #neoceratopsian #centrosaurine #drawdinovember #pencil #doodle

cattermater

A wild wendiceratops appeared!

I actually didn’t know there was a new dinosaur, much less a newly discovered one when I visited that day. Was a pleasant surprise.

amorousdino

Just worked on this Wendiceratops yesterday during some down time. #wendiceratops #ceratopsian #triceratops #torosaurus #dinosaur #dinosaurart #paleoart #paleontology #paleobiology #art #traditionalart #sketch #drawing #doodle #pencildrawing #tonedpaperdrawing #animals #animalart #animalanatomy #wildlife #wildlifeart #naturalhistory #naturalhistoryillustration #naturalhistoryart https://www.instagram.com/p/B0koASnF8oH/?igshid=13o0iu4yue6k

nathan-e-rogers

Wendiceratops pinhornensis

Late Cretaceous (~79mya), North America

A centrosaurine ceratopsian dinosaur from what is now Alberta, Canada, discovered by fossil hunter Wendy Sloboda.

Digital painting done in Photoshop.

albertavenator

Dinovember day 23. Wendiceratops.

alphynix

Ceratopsian Month #14 – Wendiceratops pinhornensis

Wendiceratops (“Wendy’s horned face”) was one of the older known centrosaurs, living about 79 million years ago in Alberta, Canada – but it had a slightly higher position in the evolutionary tree than more basal forms like Xenoceratops, indicating just how incredibly quickly the early ceratopsids diversified.

Partial remains of several individuals have been found, representing both adults and juveniles, with an estimated full size of around 6m long (19′8″).

It had forward-curving frill spikes, similar to those of its close relative Sinoceratops, and a large nose horn. The size of its brow horns are unknown, so the ones seen in this reconstruction are based on the fairly well-developed horns of other similarly-aged centrosaurs.

a-dinosaur-a-day

Wendiceratops pinhorensis

By José Carlos Cortés on @ryuukibart

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Name: Wendiceratops pinhorensis

Name Meaning: Wendy Horn Face

First Described: 2015

Described By: Evans & Ryan

Classification: Dinosauria, Ornithischia, Genasauria, Neornithischia, Cerapoda, Marginocephalia, Ceratopsia, Neoceratopsia, Coronosauria, Ceratopsoidea, Ceratopsidae, Centrosaurinae

Wendiceratops is a recently described Ceratopsian known from many specimens, showing many parts of the skeleton and skull, including juvenile specimens. It was about six meters long and was found in the Oldman Formation in Canada, dating back to about 79 to 78 million years ago, in the Campanian age of the Late Cretaceous. It had a nose horn that was both erect and flat on the top, and it had horns curving over its frill. This nose horn may have been a transition between the lower nose horns of earlier derived Centrosaurine taxa, and the large nosed later forms such as Centrosaurus. It lived alongside many other dinosaurs such as Daspletosaurus, Paronychodon, Troodon, Albertaceratops, and Parasaurolophus. Given that so many Ceratopsians are known from the various temporal stages of the Oldman Formation, there was potentially a high turnover of Ceratopsid species as the environment changed.

Source:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendiceratops

Shout out goes to @nas132!