Notoceratops is the name given to a dubious 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 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...

 based on a toothless dentary (now lost) from 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...

 of Patagonia

Patagonia

Patagonia is a region located in Argentina and Chile, integrating the southernmost section of the Andes mountains to the southwest towards the Pacific ocean and from the east of the cordillera to the valleys it follows south through Colorado River towards Carmen de Patagones in the Atlantic Ocean...

 (in Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

), probably dating from the Campanian

Campanian

The Campanian is, in the ICS' geologic timescale, the fifth of six ages of the Late Cretaceous epoch . The Campanian spans the time from 83.5 ± 0.7 Ma to 70.6 ± 0.6 Ma ...

 and about 77 million years old.

Discovery and naming

In 1918 Augusto Tapia named 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...

 Notoceratops Bonarellii. The generic name is derived from Greek notos, "the South", keras, "horn" and ops, "face". The specific name honours Guido Bonarelli who advised Tapia in his study of the find. By present conventions the epithet is spelled bonarellii, thus without a capital B. In many later publications the specific name is misspelled "bonarelli", with a single "i", from the incorrect assumption it would be derived from a latinised "Bonarell~ius". The fossil, found near the Lago Colhué Huapí in Chubut

Chubut Province

Chubut a province in the southern part of Argentina situated between the 42nd parallel south and the 46th parallel south , the Andes range separating Argentina from Chile, and the Atlantic ocean...

, was first described by Friedrich von Huene

Friedrich von Huene

Friedrich von Huene was a German paleontologist who named more dinosaurs in the early 20th century than anyone else in Europe.-Biography:...

 in 1929.

Phylogeny

Originally referred as a ceratopsian by Tapia in 1918, it was later dismissed because no other members of that group were known from the Southern Hemisphere

Southern Hemisphere

The Southern Hemisphere is the part of Earth that lies south of the equator. The word hemisphere literally means 'half ball' or "half sphere"...

. However, the recent discovery of another possible ceratopsian, Serendipaceratops

Serendipaceratops

Serendipaceratops is a dubious genus of ornithischian dinosaur from the early Cretaceous Period of Australia.The type species, S. arthurcclarkei, was named after Arthur C...

, from Australia could change this view on Ceratopsia. Notoceratops has since been considered a nomen dubium

Nomen dubium

In zoological nomenclature, a nomen dubium is a scientific name that is of unknown or doubtful application...

and may have been a hadrosaur instead.