Centrosaurus was an herbivorous genus of ceratopsian dinosaurs from the Late Cretaceous of Canada. The remains had been found 76.5 to 75.5 million years ago in the Dinosaur Park Formation.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The name Centrosaurus means \"pointed lizard\" to the series of small hornets placed along the margin of the frills, not to the nasal horns. It was a stocky dinosaur with large, strong muscles. It had a single large horn on its nose. It could be curved forward or backward, depending on the specimen. Centrosaurus was distinguished by its frill, which had two small hooks that curved forward. The frill was moderately long, with fairly large fenestrae and small hornets along the outer edges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fact that Centrosaurus had muscle attachment sites on its frill allowed the dinosaur to have a particularly strong bite. The frill was probably used as a way to distinguish between species or used as a display. In addition, it was relatively short compared to the overall length of the skull and grew to over half a meter in the oldest and largest adults.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were not unusually large dinosaurs, but they were not small either. They moved in herds of hundreds of individuals. Centrosaurus reached up to 1.8 m in height, 6 m in length and weighed about 2,700 kg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paleontologist Lawrence Lambe, in strata along the Red Deer River in Alberta, Canada, discovered the first remains of Centrosaurus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n