Ajkaceratops is a 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 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 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...

 described in 2010. It lived 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...

 in what is now Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

, in what was then the western Tethyan archipelago

Tethys Ocean

The Tethys Ocean was an ocean that existed between the continents of Gondwana and Laurasia during the Mesozoic era before the opening of the Indian Ocean.-Modern theory:...

. The type species

Type species

In biological nomenclature, a type species is both a concept and a practical system which is used in the classification and nomenclature of animals and plants. The value of a "type species" lies in the fact that it makes clear what is meant by a particular genus name. A type species is the species...

, A. kozmai, is most closely related to forms in east Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

, from where its ancestors may have migrated by island-hopping. The generic name, Ajkaceratops, honors Ajka

Ajka

Ajka is a city in Hungary with about 35,000 inhabitants. It is situated in the hills of Bakony.-History:Around 1000 BCE the area was inhabited by Celts. By the 2nd century CE the territory was conquered by the Romans...

, a town in Hungary

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

 near Iharkút, where the fossils were discovered, combined with the 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...

 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...

, meaning "horned face". The specific name, kozmai, honors Károly Kozma.

Description

The holotype

Holotype

A holotype is a single physical example of an organism, known to have been used when the species was formally described. It is either the single such physical example or one of several such, but explicitly designated as the holotype...

, cataloged as MTM V2009.192.1, consists only of a few skull fragments, including
rostral bones, fused premaxillae, and maxillae fragments (the beak and jaw fragments). These fossils are kept in the Hungarian Natural History Museum

Hungarian Natural History Museum

The Hungarian Natural History Museum in Budapest, dating back to 1802, houses the largest natural history collections of Hungary and the region.-Foundation:...

, in Budapest

Budapest

Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...

. Although the fossils are fragmentary, the paper describing Ajkaceratops estimated a body length of 1 m (3.3 ft). Other material includes four predentary bones, cataloged as MTM V2009.193.1, V2009.194.1, V2009.195.1, and V2009.196.1; these are also believed to have belonged to Ajkaceratops, although they are proportionately smaller, and probably came from other individuals of the genus.

Classification

The fossils most closely resemble those of Asian bagaceratopsids Bagaceratops

Bagaceratops

Bagaceratops, meaning "small-horned face" , is a genus of ceratopsian dinosaur that lived in what is now Mongolia around 80 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous...

and Magnirostris

Magnirostris

Magnirostris, from the Latin "magnus" 'large' and "rostrum" 'beak', is the name given to a genus of dinosaur from the Late Campanian epoch in the Late Cretaceous. It was a ceratopsian which lived in Inner Mongolia in China...

. Those similarities indicate Ajkaceratops is a 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 related to the bagaceratopsids, but more primitive than Zuniceratops

Zuniceratops

Zuniceratops was a ceratopsian dinosaur from the mid Turonian of the Late Cretaceous Period of what is now New Mexico, United States...

and the Ceratopsidae

Ceratopsidae

Ceratopsidae is a speciose group of marginocephalian dinosaurs including Triceratops and Styracosaurus...

.

Paleobiology

The fossils of Ajkaceratops were discovered in the Csehbánya Formation

Csehbánya Formation

The Csehbánya Formation is a geological formation in Hungary whose strata date back to the Late Cretaceous. Dinosaur remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from the formation.-Vertebrate paleofauna:...

, which is interpreted as "a floodplain and channel deposit formed by variegated clay, silt with interbedded grey and brown sand, and sandstone beds". This strata dates to the Santonian

Santonian

The Santonian is an age in the geologic timescale or a chronostratigraphic stage. It is a subdivision of the Late Cretaceous epoch or Upper Cretaceous series. It spans the time between 85.8 ± 0.7 mya and 83.5 ± 0.7 mya...

 stage, around 86 to 84 mya (million years ago). Ajkaceratops shared its environment with other dinosaurs such as Rhabdodon

Rhabdodon

Rhabdodon is a genus of dinosaur that lived in Europe approximately 70 million years ago in the Late Cretaceous. It is unclear whether it was an iguanodont or a hypsilophodont, and may be a "missing link" between the two. Current evidence indicates it is an iguanodont similar to Tenontosaurus...

, nodosaurid ankylosaurs, and theropods, as well as non-dinosaurian eusuchia

Eusuchia

Eusuchia is a clade of crocodylomorphs that first appears in the Early Cretaceous with Hylaeochampsa. All living crocodilian species are eusuchians, as are many extinct forms.-Description:...

n crocodiles, azhdarchid

Azhdarchidae

Azhdarchidae is a family of pterosaurs known primarily from the late Cretaceous Period, though an isolated vertebrae apparently from an azhdarchid is known from the early Cretaceous as well...

 pterosaur

Pterosaur

Pterosaurs were flying reptiles of the clade or order Pterosauria. They existed from the late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous Period . Pterosaurs are the earliest vertebrates known to have evolved powered flight...

s, bothremydid

Bothremydidae

Bothremydidae is an extinct family of side-necked turtle. They belong to sub-order Pleurodira and order Testudines. Bothremydidae lived in fresh water and were amphibious. They were actively mobile omnivores.-Taxonomy:...

 turtles, teiid

Teiidae

Teiidae is a family of lizards native to the Americas, generally known as whiptails. The group includes the parthenogenic genera Cnemidophorus and Aspidoscelis, and the non-parthenogenic Tupinambis. It has over 230 member species in ten genera...

 lizards, and enantiornithine birds.