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The first part of the newly classified creature’s name, Xenoceratops foremostensis, translates as “alien horned-face” and refers to the unusual arrangement of its spiky skull ornamentation. The second part of the name honours the Lethbridge-area village of Foremost, close to the site where the dinosaur fossils were excavated in 1958 by palaeontologist Wann Langston Jr.

“Starting 80 million years ago, the large-bodied horned dinosaurs in North America underwent an evolutionary explosion,” said Ryan. “Xenoceratops shows us that even the geologically oldest ceratopsids had massive spikes on their head shields and that their cranial ornamentation would only become more elaborate as new species evolved.”

Langston had collected “fragmentary material” and “partial scraps” of dinosaur fossils from a dig near Foremost, Ryan told Postmedia News on Wednesday. Scientists at the time “figured it was something we already know,” but he added that, “we know a lot more” now about how to distinguish between dinosaur species.

“When I first looked at that,” he added, recalling an examination of the specimens about 10 years ago at the Ottawa museum, “I realized right away that it was something new.”

Along with research partners David Evans — a paleontologist with the Royal Ontario Museum and University of Toronto — and Canadian Museum of Nature paleobiologist Kieran Shepherd, Ryan examined other fossil fragments collected at the Foremost site and even revisited Langston’s excavation in the field, which led to another fossil find nearby.