Pronunciation: OI-ka-SEH-ruh-tops
Meaning: Horn face from Ajka
Author/s: Osi et al. (2010)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Ajka, Hungary
Discovery Chart Position: #730
Ajkaceratops kozmai
Ajkaceratops is known only from teeth, fragments of the jaw that teeth were attached to, and bits of the upper and lower beak that would have sat in front of its teeth, which immediately catapulted it right to the top of Europe's "most complete ceratopsians that don't cause arguments" list. Yes, we know. It's a sorry state of affairs.
Other European "ceratopsians" include Stenopelix valdensis from Germany, which some consider a pachycephalosaur and others an unclassifiable marginocephalian, Craspedodon from England, which was long thought to be an iguanodontian and still might be, and six isolated teeth and two tail verts' from the Campanian of southern Sweden which are shrouded in so much uncertainty that no-one has even bothered to name them.
Although discovered in Hungary, Ajkaceratops is closer in features to the Asian ceratopsians Bagaceratops and Magnirostris than it is to the ceratopsians from anywhere else. Based on fossils from the same quarry, it shared its environment with crocodiles, pterosaurs, turtles and lizards, as well as a rhabdodontid ornithopod (Mochlodon verosi), a nodosaurid ankylosaur (Hungarosaurus tormai), and a maniraptoran theropod (Pneumatoraptor fodori).
Other European "ceratopsians" include Stenopelix valdensis from Germany, which some consider a pachycephalosaur and others an unclassifiable marginocephalian, Craspedodon from England, which was long thought to be an iguanodontian and still might be, and six isolated teeth and two tail verts' from the Campanian of southern Sweden which are shrouded in so much uncertainty that no-one has even bothered to name them.
Although discovered in Hungary, Ajkaceratops is closer in features to the Asian ceratopsians Bagaceratops and Magnirostris than it is to the ceratopsians from anywhere else. Based on fossils from the same quarry, it shared its environment with crocodiles, pterosaurs, turtles and lizards, as well as a rhabdodontid ornithopod (Mochlodon verosi), a nodosaurid ankylosaur (Hungarosaurus tormai), and a maniraptoran theropod (Pneumatoraptor fodori).
(Kozma's Ajka horn face)Etymology
Ajkaceratops is derived from "Ajka" (a town near Iharkút in Hungary where its fossils were discovered), and the Greek "keras" (horn) and "ops" (face). The species epithet, kozmai, honours retired Hungarian geologist Károly Kozma, a resident of Ajka and one of lead author Attila Ösi's earliest mentors.
Discovery
The remains of Ajkaceratops were discovered in 2009 in the Csehbánya Formation at the Iharkút locality, near Ajka Town in Veszprém County, within the Bakony Mountains of western Hungary. The formation represents a floodplain and channel deposit formed by variegated clay, silt with interbedded grey and brown sand, and sandstone beds.
The holotype (MTM V2009.192.1, currently housed at the Hungarian Natural History Museum in Budapest) consists of skull, beak, and jaw fragments that were found isolated but are assumed to belong to a single individual. Referred material (MTM V2009.193.1, MTM V2009.194.1, MTM V2009.195.1, MTM V2009.196.1 ) amounts to four beak tips representing different growth stages of Ajkaceratops.
Preparator
P. Gulyás
