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EXHIBIT 134

Montanoceratops

Montanoceratops cerorhynchus

Montanoceratops was a small beaked ceratopsian; incomplete skull material has repeatedly changed how its head is reconstructed. [1]

Evidence profile

TWO WAYS TO PICTURE THE PAST

Compare the evidence with the familiar movie image. The illustrations are not to a shared scale.

01 / FOSSIL VIEW

The evidence in the bones

Partial skeleton of juvenile Montanoceratops cerorhynchus MOR542 at the Museum of the Rockies.

Juvenile M. cerorhynchus MOR542 displayed at the Museum of the Rockies. This incomplete skeleton does not establish the missing nasal anatomy. Fossil colors do not establish living colors or soft tissues. [2]

Montanoceratops MOR 542.jpg · James St. John. CC BY 2.0. Proportionally resized Commons preview and converted to WebP; no anatomy edits.

The photograph or figure shows the credited fossil material; displayed mounts and labels can include interpretation.

02 / MOVIE-STYLE INTERPRETATION

A cinematic imagination

Illustrative reconstruction of Montanoceratops; colors, soft tissues and restored details remain interpretive.

Original cinematic interpretation of Montanoceratops cerorhynchus. Colors, soft tissues, scenery and missing anatomy are reconstructed artistic choices; this is not a directly observed individual or behavior. The nasal and portions of the body are incompletely known; the historical nose horn is omitted, and posture is comparative. The short frill and restored tail/body contours remain interpretations rather than a known complete living outline. Lighting, coloration and scenery are artistic choices. This image does not document a fossil locality or behavior.

Original artwork · artistic interpretation.

Scientific view: source-informed reconstruction, credited paleoart or specimen-based imagery. Movie-style view: Original artistic interpretation. Reconstructions involve uncertainty.

PERIODLate Cretaceous[2]
DIETHerbivoreEvidence and uncertainty in the dossier
TOTAL LENGTHSee the dossierEstimate scope matters
FOSSILS FOUNDMontana, USA, Alberta, Canada[2]
CompareRead the dossierView the sources

MEET THE ANIMAL

Meet Montanoceratops

Montanoceratops was a plant-eating dinosaur known from North American fossils. Museum signage for a juvenile specimen identifies slicing teeth and a narrow beak, features consistent with gathering vegetation. A young animal is a growth-stage example, rather than a standard adult. Its displayed proportions should therefore remain connected to that juvenile identity. [D8]

Reviewed occurrences include Montana and Alberta in the Maastrichtian, near the end of the Cretaceous. Its nasal anatomy remains unknown in the relevant material. An old nose-horn reconstruction used misplaced cheek material, so the familiar horn cannot be treated as directly preserved evidence. A damaged or incomplete skull can invite restoration errors that persist in complete-looking images. [D2]

A second partial skeleton added a braincase, shoulder-girdle elements, and a hand. These discoveries expand the anatomical picture without turning the earlier specimen into one complete animal. Each find has its own preserved parts and limits. Montanoceratops illustrates why a profile should follow the actual evidence across specimens, rather than treating a fully assembled mount as the exact skeleton recovered from one place. [D3]

PREHISTORIC ANIMAL DOSSIER

A life in profile.

The animal, the evidence, and the questions still open.

Its historical mounted skull contains substantial restoration. Later reviews find the nasal unknown, so a confidently restored nose horn is unjustified. [D1] [D2]

Profile scope: M. cerorhynchus, anchored by AMNH5464 and referred material; disputed referrals and Cerasinops MOR300 are excluded. [D7]

Time
Late Cretaceous
Fossil locations in this exhibit
Montana, USA, Alberta, Canada
How to read the evidence

Source supported identifies a description documented by the cited source. Inferred marks a reconstruction or functional estimate. Debated marks competing interpretations. Not established means the sources reviewed for this dossier do not support a firm conclusion; it does not mean a behavior never occurred.

A size reference is an estimate, not a population range. Nesting evidence does not by itself establish courtship, mate choice, or lifelong pairing.

Length

Inferred

About 3 m; institutional reference

Holtz lists an educational reconstruction without a named specimen, maturity assessment or method; this is not an adult species range. [D6]

Body mass

Inferred

About 170 kg; AMNH5464 model

Paul uses reconstructed volume and limb scaling. Missing anatomy is restored; maturity is unconfirmed. [D5]

Diet

Inferred

Plant eater

Museum signage identifies slicing teeth and a narrow beak consistent with herbivory. Preferred plant species are not established. [D8]

Habitat

Inferred

Continental Maastrichtian settings

Reviewed occurrences include Montana St. Mary River beds and Alberta material. Uncertain provenance and excluded referrals limit finer age and habitat reconstruction. [D2]

Locomotion

Inferred

Quadrupedality favored by comparative anatomy

A straight femur and shoulder features are compatible with walking on four limbs. The reconstruction does not establish maximum speed or exclude every bipedal movement. [D4]

Distinctive anatomy

Source supported

Beaked skull; nasal anatomy unresolved

The nasal is unknown in the reviewed material. The old nose-horn reconstruction used misplaced cheek material; it should not be treated as an observed nasal horn. [D2] [D6]

Reproduction & life together

Reproduction and growth

Not established

Not established here

A second partial skeleton expands anatomical coverage. It does not establish nesting, clutch size, parental care or reproductive maturity. [D3]

Courtship and mating

Not established

Not established here

Incomplete skulls do not demonstrate sex-specific frills or mate choice. No genus-specific courtship evidence was identified in the reviewed accounts. [D1]

Social behavior

Not established

Not established here

The reviewed partial skeletons and referrals do not establish herds, communal nests or a characteristic group size. [D3]

Dossier research & sources

Sources and inspection notes for the claims in this profile.

  1. A redescription of the Montanoceratops cerorhynchus holotype, with a review of referred materialNew Perspectives on Horned Dinosaurs; Makovicky (2010) · Accessed 2026-10-02Original chapter preview excerpt inspected: former Leptoceratops species, AMNH5464 partial skeleton, plaster skull and missing postcrania modeled on Leptoceratops. Full chapter inaccessible; historical Campanian age superseded. · Inspected: excerpt
  2. New leptoceratopsids from the Upper Cretaceous of Alberta, CanadaCretaceous Research; Ryan, Evans, Currie, Brown and Brinkman (2012) · Accessed 2026-10-02Publisher abstract and substantial original introduction/discussion excerpts inspected. Maastrichtian Montana/Alberta occurrences; Montanoceratops nasal unknown, indeterminate TMP82.11.1 excluded. · Inspected: excerpt
  3. Montanoceratops cerorhynchus (Dinosauria: Ceratopsia) and relationships among basal neoceratopsiansJournal of Vertebrate Paleontology; Chinnery and Weishampel (1998), Johns Hopkins institutional record · Accessed 2026-10-02Original institutional abstract inspected: second partial skeleton with braincase, pectoral girdle and manus. Historical topology not treated as current. Full article inaccessible. · Inspected: abstract
  4. Appendicular skeleton of Protoceratops andrewsi: comparative morphology, ontogenetic changes, and implications for non-ceratopsid ceratopsian locomotionPeerJ; Słowiak, Tereshchenko and Fostowicz-Frelik (2019) · Accessed 2026-10-02Original comparative sections inspected via EuropePMC XML. Montanoceratops juvenile shoulder and straight femur compared with quadrupedal forms; not observed gait. · Inspected: page
  5. Mass estimates: supplementary appendix to The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs, second editionPrinceton University Press; Paul (2016) · Accessed 2026-10-02Original methods and AMNH5464 row inspected:170kg reconstructed-volume/limb-scaled model. Missing portions reconstructed; maturity not independently established. · Inspected: page
  6. Genus List for Holtz (2007) Dinosaurs; updated January 2012University of Maryland; Thomas R. Holtz Jr. · Accessed 2026-10-02Institutional educational appendix inspected: Montanoceratops3m reference and misplaced cheek horn explanation. Specimen, stage and method unspecified. · Inspected: page
  7. A new leptoceratopsid dinosaur from Maastrichtian-aged deposits of the Sustut Basin, northern British Columbia, CanadaPeerJ; Arbour and Evans (2019) · Accessed 2026-10-02Original full article inspected via EuropePMC XML. Montanoceratops comparative anatomy and taxonomy; MOR300 explicitly Cerasinops, rejecting mislabeled older mass row. · Inspected: page
  8. Montanoceratops MOR542: Museum of the Rockies exhibit photograph and transcribed signageMuseum of the Rockies signage, photographed/transcribed by James St. John · Accessed 2026-10-02Actual partial-display photograph and transcribed museum signage inspected. MOR542 identified as juvenile Montanoceratops from Montana; plant feeding, slicing teeth and narrow beak. Contributor narrative not adopted wholesale. · Inspected: excerpt

THE STORY IN THE FOSSILS

Meet Montanoceratops

The AMNH5464 mount once supplied a seemingly complete view of the animal. In reality, its plaster skull and modeled missing bones filled substantial gaps, making the fossil itself essential to anatomical interpretation. [1]

Current comparative work identifies MOR300 as Cerasinops. Excluding that specimen preserves Montanoceratops’s taxonomic and measurement scope. [7]

A note on scale and time

The dossier identifies the scope of each reference estimate. A mount, an individual fossil and a species-wide adult range are different measurements. Comparison metrics remain unavailable where adult scope has not been established. Unknown does not mean zero.

Sources & editorial notes

Sources support the stated claims and scopes. Refer to the evidence notes for uncertainty.

  1. A redescription of the Montanoceratops cerorhynchus holotype, with a review of referred materialNew Perspectives on Horned Dinosaurs; Makovicky (2010) · Accessed 2026-10-02Original chapter preview excerpt inspected: former Leptoceratops species, AMNH5464 partial skeleton, plaster skull and missing postcrania modeled on Leptoceratops. Full chapter inaccessible; historical Campanian age superseded. · Inspected: excerpt
  2. New leptoceratopsids from the Upper Cretaceous of Alberta, CanadaCretaceous Research; Ryan, Evans, Currie, Brown and Brinkman (2012) · Accessed 2026-10-02Publisher abstract and substantial original introduction/discussion excerpts inspected. Maastrichtian Montana/Alberta occurrences; Montanoceratops nasal unknown, indeterminate TMP82.11.1 excluded. · Inspected: excerpt
  3. Montanoceratops cerorhynchus (Dinosauria: Ceratopsia) and relationships among basal neoceratopsiansJournal of Vertebrate Paleontology; Chinnery and Weishampel (1998), Johns Hopkins institutional record · Accessed 2026-10-02Original institutional abstract inspected: second partial skeleton with braincase, pectoral girdle and manus. Historical topology not treated as current. Full article inaccessible. · Inspected: abstract
  4. Appendicular skeleton of Protoceratops andrewsi: comparative morphology, ontogenetic changes, and implications for non-ceratopsid ceratopsian locomotionPeerJ; Słowiak, Tereshchenko and Fostowicz-Frelik (2019) · Accessed 2026-10-02Original comparative sections inspected via EuropePMC XML. Montanoceratops juvenile shoulder and straight femur compared with quadrupedal forms; not observed gait. · Inspected: page
  5. Mass estimates: supplementary appendix to The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs, second editionPrinceton University Press; Paul (2016) · Accessed 2026-10-02Original methods and AMNH5464 row inspected:170kg reconstructed-volume/limb-scaled model. Missing portions reconstructed; maturity not independently established. · Inspected: page
  6. Genus List for Holtz (2007) Dinosaurs; updated January 2012University of Maryland; Thomas R. Holtz Jr. · Accessed 2026-10-02Institutional educational appendix inspected: Montanoceratops3m reference and misplaced cheek horn explanation. Specimen, stage and method unspecified. · Inspected: page
  7. A new leptoceratopsid dinosaur from Maastrichtian-aged deposits of the Sustut Basin, northern British Columbia, CanadaPeerJ; Arbour and Evans (2019) · Accessed 2026-10-02Original full article inspected via EuropePMC XML. Montanoceratops comparative anatomy and taxonomy; MOR300 explicitly Cerasinops, rejecting mislabeled older mass row. · Inspected: page
  8. Montanoceratops MOR542: Museum of the Rockies exhibit photograph and transcribed signageMuseum of the Rockies signage, photographed/transcribed by James St. John · Accessed 2026-10-02Actual partial-display photograph and transcribed museum signage inspected. MOR542 identified as juvenile Montanoceratops from Montana; plant feeding, slicing teeth and narrow beak. Contributor narrative not adopted wholesale. · Inspected: excerpt

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