Bizarre New Dinosaur Species Found In Utah

An artist reconstruction of  Utahceratops

An artist reconstruction of Kosmoceratops , one of two new dinosaur species  discovered in Utah.

Scientists say they've found  two new dinosaur spieces in Utah that are among the most bizarre and blinged out ever discovered.

The Utah reptiles belong to the horned-dinosaur family, which is known for outlandish anatomy , and are wowing seasoned fossil hunrers . Even the three-horned tricertops , the most familiar horned dinosaur , looks like the no-frills model compared with the newcomers.

The species named Kosmoceratops had 15 horns decorating it's massive head , giving it the most elaborate dinosaur headdress known to science . At 15 feet long , it was larger than  Ford Fiesta . Its name mean "ornate horned-face" in  Latin.

The Utahceratops was adorned with unusual short horns that stuck out to the side like  a bison's. It was roughly 20 feet long and weighed 3 to 4 tons, as much as a large pickup truck. Its name is  Latin for "Utah horned -face."

The new species  "would've both been quite spectacular ," Michael Getty of the Utah Museum  of Natural History , who first spotted the first Utahceratops , he told the AOL News . And quite big : The skulls alone can be in axcess of 6 feet long [among]  the largest heads on any land animal that ever lived," he said.

The new discoveries are "first class finds , no doubt  about it," said the University of Pennsylvania's Peter Dodson , an authority on horned dinosaurs. Kosmoceratops in particular  "is absurd , a really ,really bizarre-lookong animal. Kosmoceratops is an outier even in its class," he said. The dinosaurs probably used those formidable horns to beackon lady dinosaurs , perhaps to fend off rival suiters , but certainly not to impaale prey.

The hooks at the back of the skull would've been relatively useless as weapons , but they're great for showing off," said study leader Scott Sampson of the Utah Museum of Natural History told the press. "These are effectively the Peacock feathers ...of the dinosaur world.."

Both species were plant eaters , somehow  swellling to a massive size o the vegetation  that thrived in the warm , swampy landscape that Utah had during the Late Certaceous period , more than 70 million years ago.  Today these dinosaurs would quickly strave in their once-lush homeland. The bone yards that yielded the fossils lie in what is now the Grand Staircase-Esaalante National Monument , an isolated ,rocky desert granted strict federal protection in 1996.

Fossil hunting at Grand Staircase is an endurance sport. The researches live in research camps that are among the most remote in the U.S.  , Getty says. The water source is a 90-minute  drive from camp. The scientists walk several miles from their camp to the dig site , sometimes carrying jackhammers and the heavy plaster needed to protect fossils. Getty was stung by a scorpion earlier this year , which at least was not as bad as being bitten by the local rattlesnakes.

But Getty says the hardships  are worth it. In addition to uncovering two eye-popping new speices  , the researches helped solidify the theory that a no-zone in nothern Utah divided dinosaurs into northern and southern populations . Dinosaurs from Canada are completely different from those in Utah .  Something , perphaps  a change in climate , kept the two groups from mixing.

Getty vividly recalled uncovering the first Utahceratops. "Finding such a significant  animal ...[that] looked liked a new species , different from  anything else we'd seen -- it couldn't get much more exciting," he said.

Happy fossil hunting ...