Pronunciation: seh-ren-DIP-uh-SEH-ruh-tops
Meaning: Serendip horned face
Author/s: Rich and Vickers-Rich (2003)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Victoria, Australia
Discovery Chart Position: #528
Serendipaceratops arthurcclarkei
Upon discovery, Tom Rich and Patricia Vickers-Rich convinced themselves that the remains of Serendipaceratops belonged to a theropod. However, during a trip to the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology and a glance at the corresponding remains of Leptoceratops they noted a striking similarity between the two, and if their new theory could be substantiated it would not only push the origin of neoceratopsians back almost 30 million years but also shift it to the other side of the planet. A serendipitous find indeed.
Unfortunately, a single forearm bone isn't the most reliable yardstick when trying to link your new find to something that obviously has a horned face, albeit a modest one, and when Agnolin and colleagues inspected said bone they couldn't find any features to unite it with neoceratopsia nor many to separate it from an armoured Australian ankylosaur called Minmi.
For over a decade, all that could be said about Serendipaceratops with any certainty is that it was a "genasaurian", a name used almost exclusively by Paul Sereno for the ornithischian group that includes Neornithischia (marginocephalians, ceratopsians, pachycephalosaurs, cerapods and ornithopods) and Thyreophora (stegosaurs and ankylosaurs). But, in 2014, it was confirmed as an early ceratopsian... by the original authors (plus a few learned associates) who suspected it was there or thereabouts after their visit to the Royal Tyrrell in paragraph one.
Unfortunately, a single forearm bone isn't the most reliable yardstick when trying to link your new find to something that obviously has a horned face, albeit a modest one, and when Agnolin and colleagues inspected said bone they couldn't find any features to unite it with neoceratopsia nor many to separate it from an armoured Australian ankylosaur called Minmi.
For over a decade, all that could be said about Serendipaceratops with any certainty is that it was a "genasaurian", a name used almost exclusively by Paul Sereno for the ornithischian group that includes Neornithischia (marginocephalians, ceratopsians, pachycephalosaurs, cerapods and ornithopods) and Thyreophora (stegosaurs and ankylosaurs). But, in 2014, it was confirmed as an early ceratopsian... by the original authors (plus a few learned associates) who suspected it was there or thereabouts after their visit to the Royal Tyrrell in paragraph one.
Etymology
Given the uncertainty that has followed Serendipaceratops like a bad smell, it isn't surprising that its etymology is far from straightforward.
As well as the Greek "ceras" (horn) and "ops" (face), it is derived from both "Serendipity" (to find something by accident whilst looking for something entirely different, referring to its discovery on a continent where no-one expected to find ceratopsian remains) and "Serendip" (the name given to Sri Lanka by Muslim traders).
The latter has nothing to do with its place of discovery but is the birth place of author Arthur C. Clarke who is honoured in the species epithet arthurcclarkei.
Discovery
The only known remains of Serendipaceratops were discovered in the Wonthaggi Formation of the Strzelecki Group, in "The Arch" on the shore platform
near the village of Kilcunda, Victoria, Australia, by Tom Rich and Patricia Vickers-Rich during the "Dinosaur Cove" project in 1993.
That fossil (NMV P186385), a partial left ulna (lower arm bone), is the holotype .
