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Diabloceratops ( ) is an extinct genus of centrosaurine ceratopsian dinosaur that lived approximately 81.4-81 million years ago during the latter part of the Cretaceous Period in what is now Utah, in the United States. (2026). 9780253353580, Indiana University Press. ISBN 9780253353580 Diabloceratops was a medium-sized, moderately built, ground-dwelling, quadrupedal herbivore, that could grow up to an estimated in length and in body mass. At the time of its discovery, it was the oldest-known ceratopsid, and first centrosaurine known from south of the U.S. state of Montana. The generic name Diabloceratops means "devil-horned face", coming from Diablo, Spanish for "devil", and ceratops, Latinized Greek for "horned face". The specific name honors Jeffrey Eaton, a paleontologist at Weber State University and long time friend of the lead author Jim Kirkland. Eaton had a big role in establishing the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument where the specimen was found. The type species, Diabloceratops eatoni, was named and described in 2010 by James Ian Kirkland and Donald DeBlieux.
Upon the frill it also had a pair of very long spikes as in Einiosaurus and Styracosaurus. It being one of the earliest centrosaurine ceratopsids, Kirkland noted a character Diabloceratops shared with the more "primitive" protoceratopsid forms. Both possess an accessory opening in the skull that would become much reduced or disappear in later, more advanced ceratopsids. Kirkland and DeBlieux saw this as an indication that the earlier species were not together included in some single natural group but instead presented a gradual sequence of ever more derived forms, increasingly closer related to the Ceratopsidae.
A 2019 phylogenetic analysis recovered this genus is a sister taxon of the ceratopsid family, but as a ceratopsian outside the group. Subsequent studies still consider this genus as a basal centrosaurine based on phylogenetic analyses.
Classification
A phylogenetic tree after a recent phylogenetic analysis by Chiba et al. (2017):
Paleoecology
Habitat
The Wahweap Formation has been radiometrically dated as being between 82.2 and 77.3 million years old. The precise age of Diabloceratops has been estimated to be 81.27 Ma, with a range of uncertainty between 81.42-81.01 Ma. During the time that Diabloceratops lived, the Western Interior Seaway was at its widest extent, almost completely isolating southern Laramidia from the rest of North America. The area where dinosaurs lived included lakes, floodplains, and east-flowing rivers. The Wahweap Formation is part of the Grand Staircase region, an immense sequence of sedimentary rock layers that stretch south from Bryce Canyon National Park through Zion National Park and into the Grand Canyon. The presence of rapid sedimentation and other evidence suggests a wet, seasonal climate.Zubair A. Jinnah, #30088 (2009)Sequence Stratigraphic Control from Alluvial Architecture of Upper Cretaceous Fluvial System - Wahweap Formation, Southern Utah, U.S.A. Search and Discovery Article #30088. Posted June 16, 2009.
Paleofauna
Diabloceratops shared its paleoenvironment with other dinosaurs, such as the hadrosaur Acristavus gagslarsoni, and the lambeosaur Adelolophus hutchisoni, (2026). 9780253013859, Indiana University Press. ISBN 9780253013859 unnamed ankylosaurs and pachycephalosaurs, and the theropod Lythronax argestes, which was likely the apex predator in its ecosystem.John Wesley Powell Memorial Museum display, visited April 30th, 2009 Vertebrates present in the Wahweap Formation at the time of Diabloceratops included freshwater fish, , abundant Batoidea and sharks, turtles like Compsemys, crocodilians,Thompson, Cameron R. "A preliminary report on biostratigraphy of Cretaceous freshwater rays, Wahweap Formation and John Henry Member of the Straight Cliffs Formation, southern Utah." Abstracts with Programs - Geological Society of America, vol.36, no.4, pp.91, Apr 2004 and lungfish.Orsulak, Megan et al. "A lungfish burrow in late Cretaceous upper capping sandstone member of the Wahweap Formation Cockscomb area, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah." Abstracts with Programs - Geological Society of America, vol. 39, no. 5, pp.43, May 2007 A fair number of mammals lived in this region, which included several genera of multituberculates, , marsupials, and placental insectivores.Eaton, Jeffrey G; Cifelli, Richard L. "Review of Cretaceous mammalian paleontology; Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah. Abstracts with Programs - Geological Society of America, vol.37, no.7, pp.115, Oct 2005 The mammals are more primitive than those that lived in the area that is now the Kaiparowits Formation. are relatively abundant in the Wahweap Formation, and suggest the presence of crocodylomorphs, as well as ornithischian and theropod dinosaurs.Tester, Edward et al. Isolated vertebrate tracks from the Upper Cretaceous capping sandstone member of the Wahweap Formation; Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, UtahAbstracts with Programs - Geological Society of America, vol. 39, no. 5, pp.42, May 2007 In 2010 a unique trace fossil was discovered that suggests a predator-prey relationship between dinosaurs and primitive mammals. The trace fossil includes at least two den complexes as well as associated digging grooves presumably caused by a dinosaur. The proximity indicates a case of probable active predation of the burrow inhabitants by the animals that made the claw marks. Invertebrate activity in this formation ranged from fossilized insect burrows in De Blieux, Donald D. "Analysis of Jim's hadrosaur site; a dinosaur site in the middle Campanian (Cretaceous) Wahweap Formation of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (GSENM), southern Utah." Abstracts with Programs - Geological Society of America, vol. 39, no. 5, pp.6, May 2007 to various , large ,Kirkland, James Ian. "An inventory of paleontological resources in the lower Wahweap Formation (lower Campanian), southern Kaiparowits Plateau, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah." Abstracts with Programs - Geological Society of America, vol.37, no.7, pp.114, Oct 2005. and a wide diversity of and .Williams, Jessica A J; Lohrengel, C Frederick. Preliminary study of freshwater gastropods in the Wahweap Formation, Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah. Abstracts with Programs - Geological Society of America, vol. 39, no. 5, pp.43, May 2007
See also
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