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EXHIBIT 136

Zuniceratops

Zuniceratops christopheri

Zuniceratops combined prominent brow horns with a hornless nose, before the later radiation of large ceratopsids. [2]

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 / SKELETAL RECONSTRUCTION

A framework from the fossils

Mounted Zuniceratops skeletal reconstruction at the Wyoming Dinosaur Center.

Mounted Zuniceratops reconstruction at the Wyoming Dinosaur Center. Complete body and skull contours include restored parts; the source does not identify one fossil individual or life stage. Fossil colors do not establish living colors or soft tissues. [2]

Zuniceratops.jpg · incidencematrix. CC BY 2.0. Proportionally resized Commons preview and converted to WebP; no anatomy edits.

Skeletal mounts and drawings may restore missing parts; the caption identifies the displayed material.

02 / MOVIE-STYLE INTERPRETATION

A cinematic imagination

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

Original cinematic interpretation of Zuniceratops christopheri. Colors, soft tissues, scenery and missing anatomy are reconstructed artistic choices; this is not a directly observed individual or behavior. The two brow horns are distinct from frill ornament; missing anatomy, horn sheaths and living proportions are reconstructed. 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[3]
DIETHerbivoreEvidence and uncertainty in the dossier
TOTAL LENGTHSee the dossierEstimate scope matters
FOSSILS FOUNDNew Mexico, USA[3]
CompareRead the dossierView the sources

MEET THE ANIMAL

Meet Zuniceratops

Zuniceratops was a Late Cretaceous plant eater from what is now the United States. It had two prominent horns over its eyes and a relatively lightly built body. Its teeth could shear vertically through food, rather like scissors. This combination helps researchers investigate how the large horned dinosaurs evolved, without treating Zuniceratops itself as a demonstrated ancestor. [D1] [S1]

Its New Mexico fossils come from the Moreno Hill Formation. The surrounding rocks record rivers and a plain near a delta, where a river spreads sediment toward the sea. Researchers use tiny zircon crystals to constrain the age of these deposits. Those measurements help place the fossils in time, but do not give an exact birthday for each dinosaur. [D3]

Bones of Zuniceratops occur with another dinosaur, Nothronychus, and pieces of wood. Strong currents and trapped logs helped gather these remains after death. A collection of bones can therefore tell us about an ancient river without proving that the animals lived in a herd. Its everyday social life remains an open question in the reviewed evidence. [D4]

Overview sources
  1. New Mexico’s Peculiar Two-Horned DinosaurSmithsonian Magazine; Riley Black (2011) · Accessed 2026-10-04Inspected: page

PREHISTORIC ANIMAL DOSSIER

A life in profile.

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

A mixed river bonebed expands its anatomy but also complicates claims about social behavior. Some early supposed skull material belonged to another dinosaur. [D4] [D2]

Profile scope: Z. christopheri: holotype MSM P2101 and referred Moreno Hill material; complete restorations combine incomplete individuals. [D2]

Time
Late Cretaceous
Fossil locations in this exhibit
New Mexico, USA
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 3.5 m; institutional reference

Holtz gives an educational reconstruction without specimen, maturity or method. It is not the measured length of holotype MSM P2101. [D5]

Body mass

Not established

Not established here

The institutional appendix uses a qualitative animal comparison, without a calibrated kilogram value or reproducible model. No suitable numeric mass was established. [D5]

Diet

Source supported

Plant eater

Museum classification and shearing cheek teeth support herbivory. No reviewed evidence identifies particular plants or feeding height. [D1] [D2]

Habitat

Inferred

River-influenced delta plain

Moreno Hill sediments record channels and floodplain deposits landward of the Gallup Delta. Initial lower deposition occurred after a90.9Ma maximum-age constraint; this is not a direct fossil date. [D3]

Locomotion

Inferred

Probably quadrupedal

Partial limb and shoulder bones support a reconstructed ceratopsian body plan. Exact stance and movement speeds are not observed. [D2]

Distinctive anatomy

Source supported

Brow horns without a nasal horn

Reviewed nasal bones lack a horn. Brow-horn size varies; the complete frill outline remains reconstructed from incomplete material. [D2]

Reproduction & life together

Reproduction and growth

Not established

Not established here

The type was interpreted as an older juvenile/young adult or a gracile individual. This ambiguity does not establish breeding maturity or nesting behavior. [D2]

Courtship and mating

Not established

Not established here

Horn variation has possible age and sex explanations. It does not demonstrate confirmed sexes, mate choice or a particular courtship display. [D2]

Social behavior

Not established

Not established here

Disarticulated Zuniceratops bones occur with Nothronychus and logs. Preferred orientations and current-driven trapping provide a depositional explanation; grouping remains unresolved. [D4]

Dossier research & sources

Sources and inspection notes for the claims in this profile.

  1. ZuniceratopsNatural History Museum, London · Accessed 2026-10-02Museum page inspected: herbivory, Late Cretaceous USA and Z.christopheri nomenclature. Broad educational dates not adopted as a precisely dated species range. · Inspected: page
  2. New information on the skull of Zuniceratops christopheri, a neoceratopsian dinosaur from the Cretaceous Moreno Hill Formation, New MexicoNew Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin17; Wolfe (2000) · Accessed 2026-10-02Complete original scan pp93–94 downloaded from institution and visually inspected. Type MSMP2101, five-plus disarticulated individuals, skull restoration, nasal absence, horn variation and life-stage/sex ambiguity. Actual publication2000, not later catalog/upload date. · Inspected: page
  3. Age constraint for the Moreno Hill Formation (Zuni Basin) by CA-TIMS and LA-ICP-MS detrital zircon geochronologyPeerJ; Cilliers, Tucker, Crowley and Zanno (2021) · Accessed 2026-10-02Original full paper inspected via EuropePMC XML. Lower deposition after90.9Ma and upper after88.6Ma are maximum depositional-age constraints, not dated Zuniceratops individuals; river/delta-plain framework. · Inspected: page
  4. The Slothful Claw: Osteology and Taphonomy of Nothronychus mckinleyi and N.graffami (Dinosauria: Theropoda) and Anatomical Considerations for Derived TherizinosauridsPLOS ONE; Hedrick, Zanno, Wolfe and Dodson (2015) · Accessed 2026-10-02Original publisher taphonomy sections inspected. Mixed Nothronychus/Zuniceratops Haystack Butte bed, disarticulation, orientation, strong-current concentration and log trapping. Older numeric age superseded by2021. · Inspected: page
  5. Genus List for Holtz (2007) Dinosaurs; updated January 2012University of Maryland; Thomas R. Holtz Jr. · Accessed 2026-10-02Institutional appendix inspected: Zuniceratops3.5m, animal-based mass comparison and brow/no-nose-horn summary. Individual, maturity and size methods unspecified. · Inspected: page

THE STORY IN THE FOSSILS

Meet Zuniceratops

The Haystack Butte bonebed shows how many dinosaur bones can gather without recording a living herd. Strong currents and trapped logs helped concentrate disarticulated remains of more than one dinosaur genus. [4]

New age constraints revise the formation framework using zircon grains. They date the earliest possible sediment deposition, so a narrow lifespan for Zuniceratops cannot be read directly from those numbers. [3]

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. ZuniceratopsNatural History Museum, London · Accessed 2026-10-02Museum page inspected: herbivory, Late Cretaceous USA and Z.christopheri nomenclature. Broad educational dates not adopted as a precisely dated species range. · Inspected: page
  2. New information on the skull of Zuniceratops christopheri, a neoceratopsian dinosaur from the Cretaceous Moreno Hill Formation, New MexicoNew Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin17; Wolfe (2000) · Accessed 2026-10-02Complete original scan pp93–94 downloaded from institution and visually inspected. Type MSMP2101, five-plus disarticulated individuals, skull restoration, nasal absence, horn variation and life-stage/sex ambiguity. Actual publication2000, not later catalog/upload date. · Inspected: page
  3. Age constraint for the Moreno Hill Formation (Zuni Basin) by CA-TIMS and LA-ICP-MS detrital zircon geochronologyPeerJ; Cilliers, Tucker, Crowley and Zanno (2021) · Accessed 2026-10-02Original full paper inspected via EuropePMC XML. Lower deposition after90.9Ma and upper after88.6Ma are maximum depositional-age constraints, not dated Zuniceratops individuals; river/delta-plain framework. · Inspected: page
  4. The Slothful Claw: Osteology and Taphonomy of Nothronychus mckinleyi and N.graffami (Dinosauria: Theropoda) and Anatomical Considerations for Derived TherizinosauridsPLOS ONE; Hedrick, Zanno, Wolfe and Dodson (2015) · Accessed 2026-10-02Original publisher taphonomy sections inspected. Mixed Nothronychus/Zuniceratops Haystack Butte bed, disarticulation, orientation, strong-current concentration and log trapping. Older numeric age superseded by2021. · Inspected: page
  5. Genus List for Holtz (2007) Dinosaurs; updated January 2012University of Maryland; Thomas R. Holtz Jr. · Accessed 2026-10-02Institutional appendix inspected: Zuniceratops3.5m, animal-based mass comparison and brow/no-nose-horn summary. Individual, maturity and size methods unspecified. · Inspected: page

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