Agathaumas
Encyclopedia
Agathaumas is a dubious
genus
of a large ceratopsid dinosaur
that lived in Wyoming
during the Late Cretaceous
(late Maastrichtian
stage
, 65 million years ago). The name comes from Greek
, αγαν - 'much' and θαυμα - 'wonder'. It is estimated to have been 30 ft long and weighed 6 tons, and was the largest land animal known at the time of its discovery.
It was the first ceratopsia
n known to science, though relatively little is known about it. The original specimen consisted only of the animal's hip bones, hip vertebrae and ribs, and because these bones vary little between ceratopsid species, it is usually considered a nomen dubium
. It is probably a synonym of Triceratops
, but because the remains are so incomplete, they cannot be confidently referred to as the senior synonym of Triceratops.
remains of Agathaumas were first found in 1872 in southwestern Wyoming
. They were discovered by Fielding Bradford Meek
and H.M. Bannister while they were looking for fossil shells in the Lance Formation
(then Laramie Formation) near the Black Butte and Bitter Creek
. Meek and Bannister were employed by Ferdinand Hayden's
Geological Survey of the Territories, and notified paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope
of the find. Cope himself searched the ridge near Black Butte and re-discovered Meek's site, finding huge bones protruding from the rocks near a coal vein. The bones were preserved in sand and clay sediments, packed with fossil sticks and leaves, indicating a heavily forested habitat. Cope later (in 1873) described the skeleton as "the wreck of one of the princes among giants." Later in 1872, Cope published a description and name for the animal, Agathaumas sylvestris, or "marvelous forest-dweller," in reference to its great size and the environment revealed in the same rocks as its bones. The name Agathaumas has been cited as an example of Cope's excitement with this discovery, which was, at the time, the largest known land animal that had ever lived (until several years later, with the discovery of the giant sauropod
dinosaurs of the Morrison Formation
.
Cope and his team eventually recovered complete hip bones, sacral vertebrae, and several ribs from the animal. Since these were the first ceratopsian remains found, Cope was uncertain as to precisely what sort of dinosaur Agathaumas was (and for a time considered it a hadrosaur) until O. C. Marsh described Triceratops
in 1889.
In a 1889 paper, Cope suggested that Marsh's Ceratopsidae be renamed Agathaumidae, because of the paucity of Ceratops
remains.
Species previously referred to Agathaumas:
Unfortunately, the bones of the rear half of the animal found are not particularly diagnostic in ceratopsians and Agathaumas remains a nomen dubium. No other remains have been found in the area, but based on its size and age of the rocks, it probably was a Triceratops.
In 1897, artist
Charles R. Knight
painted Agathaumas for Cope, creating an imposing beast which blended the long facial horns of Triceratops with the spiked frill of the Styracosaurus
. The artwork was later used as basis for a model Agathaumas used in the 1925 film The Lost World
. Agathaumas has appeared in various forms since then.
Nomen dubium
In zoological nomenclature, a nomen dubium is a scientific name that is of unknown or doubtful application...
genus
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
of a large ceratopsid dinosaur
Dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...
that lived in Wyoming
Wyoming
Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...
during the Late Cretaceous
Late Cretaceous
The Late Cretaceous is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous period is divided in the geologic timescale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous series...
(late Maastrichtian
Maastrichtian
The Maastrichtian is, in the ICS' geologic timescale, the latest age or upper stage of the Late Cretaceous epoch or Upper Cretaceous series, the Cretaceous period or system, and of the Mesozoic era or erathem. It spanned from 70.6 ± 0.6 Ma to 65.5 ± 0.3 Ma...
stage
Faunal stage
In chronostratigraphy, a stage is a succession of rock strata laid down in a single age on the geologic timescale, which usually represents millions of years of deposition. A given stage of rock and the corresponding age of time will by convention have the same name, and the same boundaries.Rock...
, 65 million years ago). The name comes from Greek
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
, αγαν - 'much' and θαυμα - 'wonder'. It is estimated to have been 30 ft long and weighed 6 tons, and was the largest land animal known at the time of its discovery.
It was the first ceratopsia
Ceratopsia
Ceratopsia or Ceratopia is a group of herbivorous, beaked dinosaurs which thrived in what are now North America, Europe, and Asia, during the Cretaceous Period, although ancestral forms lived earlier, in the Jurassic. The earliest known ceratopsian, Yinlong downsi, lived between 161.2 and 155.7...
n known to science, though relatively little is known about it. The original specimen consisted only of the animal's hip bones, hip vertebrae and ribs, and because these bones vary little between ceratopsid species, it is usually considered a nomen dubium
Nomen dubium
In zoological nomenclature, a nomen dubium is a scientific name that is of unknown or doubtful application...
. It is probably a synonym of Triceratops
Triceratops
Triceratops is a genus of herbivorous ceratopsid dinosaur which lived during the late Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous Period, around 68 to 65 million years ago in what is now North America. It was one of the last dinosaur genera to appear before the great Cretaceous–Paleogene...
, but because the remains are so incomplete, they cannot be confidently referred to as the senior synonym of Triceratops.
History
The fossilFossil
Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...
remains of Agathaumas were first found in 1872 in southwestern Wyoming
Wyoming
Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...
. They were discovered by Fielding Bradford Meek
Fielding Bradford Meek
Fielding Bradford Meek was an American geologist and paleontologist.The son of a lawyer, he was born in Madison, Indiana. In early life he was in business as a merchant, but his leisure hours were devoted to collecting fossils and studying the rocks of the neighborhood of Madison...
and H.M. Bannister while they were looking for fossil shells in the Lance Formation
Lance Formation
The Lance Formation is a division of Late Cretaceous rocks in the western United States. Named after Lance Creek, Wyoming, the microvertebrate fossils and dinosaurs represent important components of the latest Mesozoic vertebrate faunas...
(then Laramie Formation) near the Black Butte and Bitter Creek
Bitter Creek (Wyoming)
Bitter Creek is an 80 mile long stream in the U.S. state of Wyoming. It passes through several Wyoming counties including Sweetwater, and Carbon.. The creek rises near the Delaney Rim on the western side of Wyoming's Red Desert in Carbon County. For most of its course, Bitter Creek parallels the...
. Meek and Bannister were employed by Ferdinand Hayden's
Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden
Dr. Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden was an American geologist noted for his pioneering surveying expeditions of the Rocky Mountains in the late 19th century. He was also a physician who served with the Union Army during the Civil War.-Early life:Ferdinand Hayden was born in Westfield, Massachusetts...
Geological Survey of the Territories, and notified paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope
Edward Drinker Cope
Edward Drinker Cope was an American paleontologist and comparative anatomist, as well as a noted herpetologist and ichthyologist. Born to a wealthy Quaker family, Cope distinguished himself as a child prodigy interested in science; he published his first scientific paper at the age of nineteen...
of the find. Cope himself searched the ridge near Black Butte and re-discovered Meek's site, finding huge bones protruding from the rocks near a coal vein. The bones were preserved in sand and clay sediments, packed with fossil sticks and leaves, indicating a heavily forested habitat. Cope later (in 1873) described the skeleton as "the wreck of one of the princes among giants." Later in 1872, Cope published a description and name for the animal, Agathaumas sylvestris, or "marvelous forest-dweller," in reference to its great size and the environment revealed in the same rocks as its bones. The name Agathaumas has been cited as an example of Cope's excitement with this discovery, which was, at the time, the largest known land animal that had ever lived (until several years later, with the discovery of the giant sauropod
Sauropoda
Sauropoda , or the sauropods , are an infraorder of saurischian dinosaurs. They had long necks, long tails, small heads , and thick, pillar-like legs. They are notable for the enormous sizes attained by some species, and the group includes the largest animals to have ever lived on land...
dinosaurs of the Morrison Formation
Morrison Formation
The Morrison Formation is a distinctive sequence of Late Jurassic sedimentary rock that is found in the western United States, which has been the most fertile source of dinosaur fossils in North America. It is composed of mudstone, sandstone, siltstone and limestone and is light grey, greenish...
.
Cope and his team eventually recovered complete hip bones, sacral vertebrae, and several ribs from the animal. Since these were the first ceratopsian remains found, Cope was uncertain as to precisely what sort of dinosaur Agathaumas was (and for a time considered it a hadrosaur) until O. C. Marsh described Triceratops
Triceratops
Triceratops is a genus of herbivorous ceratopsid dinosaur which lived during the late Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous Period, around 68 to 65 million years ago in what is now North America. It was one of the last dinosaur genera to appear before the great Cretaceous–Paleogene...
in 1889.
In a 1889 paper, Cope suggested that Marsh's Ceratopsidae be renamed Agathaumidae, because of the paucity of Ceratops
Ceratops
Ceratops is a dubious genus of ceratopsian dinosaur which lived during the Late Cretaceous. Its fossils have been found in Montana. Although poorly known, Ceratops is important in the history of dinosaurs, since it is the type species for which both Ceratopsia and Ceratopsidae are named...
remains.
Species
Type:- Agathaumas sylvestris Cope, 1872; 16 vertebrae from the tail, sacrum and back, a partial pelvis and several ribs
Species previously referred to Agathaumas:
- A. flabellatus (Marsh, 1889/Scott, 1900); included with Triceratops horridus.
- A. milo (Cope, 1874); included with ThespesiusThespesiusThespesius is a dubious genus of hadrosaurid dinosaur from the late Maastrichtian-age Upper Cretaceous Lance Formation of South Dakota....
occidentalis. - A. monoclonius (Breihaupt, 1994); nomen dubium included with MonocloniusMonocloniusMonoclonius was a ceratopsian dinosaur from the Judith River Formation of Late Cretaceous Montana and Canada. It is often confused with Centrosaurus, a similar genus of ceratopsian . Monoclonius was described by Edward Drinker Cope in 1876...
sphenocerus. - A. mortuarius (Cope, 1874/Hay, 1902); nomen dubium included with Triceratops horridus.
- A. prorsus (Marsh, 1890/Lydekker, 1893); included with Triceratops prorsus.
- A. sphenocerus (Cope, 1890); nomen dubium included with Monoclonius sphenocerus.
Unfortunately, the bones of the rear half of the animal found are not particularly diagnostic in ceratopsians and Agathaumas remains a nomen dubium. No other remains have been found in the area, but based on its size and age of the rocks, it probably was a Triceratops.
Knight's restoration
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
Charles R. Knight
Charles R. Knight
Charles Robert Knight was an American artist best known for his influential paintings of dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals...
painted Agathaumas for Cope, creating an imposing beast which blended the long facial horns of Triceratops with the spiked frill of the Styracosaurus
Styracosaurus
Styracosaurus was a genus of herbivorous ceratopsian dinosaur from the Cretaceous Period , about 76.5 to 75.0 million years ago...
. The artwork was later used as basis for a model Agathaumas used in the 1925 film The Lost World
The Lost World (1925 film)
The Lost World is a 1925 silent film adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle's 1912 novel of the same name. The movie was produced by First National Pictures, a large Hollywood studio at the time, and stars Wallace Beery as Professor Challenger. This version was directed by Harry O...
. Agathaumas has appeared in various forms since then.