Titanoceratops 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 herbivorous 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...

. It was a giant chasmosaurine

Chasmosaurinae

Chasmosaurinae is a subfamily of ceratopsid dinosaurs. Triceratops is a well-known example. They were one of the most successful groups of herbivores of their time. Chasmosaurines appeared in the early Campanian, and became extinct, along with all other non-avian dinosaurs, during the K-T extinction...

 ceratopsian which 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...

 period (late 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 ...

, 74.5–73.7 Ma) in what is now New Mexico

New Mexico

New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...

, and the earliest known triceratopsin. It is known from 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...

 OMNH 10165, a partial skeleton

Skeleton

The skeleton is the body part that forms the supporting structure of an organism. There are two different skeletal types: the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, and the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside the body.In a figurative sense, skeleton can...

 including partial skull

Skull

The skull is a bony structure in the head of many animals that supports the structures of the face and forms a cavity for the brain.The skull is composed of two parts: the cranium and the mandible. A skull without a mandible is only a cranium. Animals that have skulls are called craniates...

 and jaw

Jaw

The jaw is any opposable articulated structure at the entrance of the mouth, typically used for grasping and manipulating food. The term jaws is also broadly applied to the whole of the structures constituting the vault of the mouth and serving to open and close it and is part of the body plan of...

s. The holotype has been recovered from the upper Fruitland Formation

Fruitland Formation

The Fruitland Formation is a sedimentary geological formation containing layers of sandstone, shale, and coal. It was laid down in marshy delta conditions, with poor drainage and frequent flooding, under a warm, humid and seasonal climate...

 or the lower Kirtland Formation

Kirtland Formation

The Kirtland Formation is a sedimentary geological formation. It is the product of alluvial muds and overbank sand deposits from the many channels draining the coastal plain that existed on the inland seashore of North America, in the late Cretaceous period. It overlies the Fruitland Formation...

. It was formally named by Nicholas R. Longrich in 2011

2011 in paleontology

-Lobopods:-Arachnids:-Insects:-Newly named jawless vertebrates:-Newly named acanthodian:-Newly named cartilaginous fishes:-Newly named bony fishes:-Newly named lepospondyls:-Newly named temnospondyls:-Newly named lissamphibians:...

 and the type species is Titanoceratops ouranos. Previously, its fossils were assigned to Pentaceratops

Pentaceratops

Pentaceratops is a genus of ceratopsid dinosaur from the late Cretaceous Period of what is now North America. The appearance of Pentaceratops sternbergii in the fossil record marks the end of the Judithian land vertebrate age and the start of the Kirtlandian...

.

It is estimated to have reached about 9 metres (29.5 ft) in length, making it among the largest known ceratopsians. Tom Holtz (2010) noted that it is extremely similar to its closely related contemporaries Eotriceratops

Eotriceratops

Eotriceratops is a genus of ceratopsian dinosaur which lived during the late Cretaceous period. Its fossils have been found in the uppermost Horseshoe Canyon Formation, dating to about 67.6 million years ago. Its skull is reported to have been around 3 metres long...

and Ojoceratops

Ojoceratops

Ojoceratops is a genus of ceratopsian dinosaur which lived in what is now New Mexico. Ojoceratops fossils have been recovered from strata of the Ojo Alamo Formation , dating to the late Cretaceous period . The type species is Ojoceratops fowleri...

, which may all be synonymous.