Ajkaceratops

Ajkaceratops (pronounced "oi-ka-sera-tops") is a genus of ceratopsian dinosaur was described in 2010. It lived during the Late Cretaceous in what is now Europe, in what was then the western Tethyan archipelago. The type species, "A. kozmai", is most closely related to forms in east Asia, from where its ancestors may have migrated by island-hopping. The generic name, "Ajkaceratops", honors Ajka, a town in Hungary near Iharkút, where the fossils were discovered, combined with the Greek "ceratops", meaning "horned face". The specific name, "kozmai", honors Károly Kozma.
Description.
The holotype, cataloged as MTM V2009.192.1. It consists only of a few skull fragments, including
rostral bones, fused premaxillae, and maxillae fragments (the beak and jaw fragments). These fossils are kept in the Hungarian Natural History Museum, in Budapest. Although the fossils are fragmentary, the paper describing "Ajkaceratops" estimated a body length of . Other material includes four predentary bones, cataloged as MTM V2009.193.1, V2009.194.1, V2009.195.1, and V2009.196.1; these are also believed to have belonged to "Ajkaceratops", although they are proportionately smaller, and probably came from other individuals of the genus.
Classification.
The fossils most closely resemble those of the Asian bagaceratopsids "Bagaceratops" and the "Magnirostris". Those similarities indicate "Ajkaceratops" is a ceratopsian related to the bagaceratopsids, but more primitive than the "Zuniceratops" and the Ceratopsidae.
Palaeoecology.
The fossils of "Ajkaceratops" were discovered in the Csehbánya Formation, which is interpreted as "a floodplain and channel deposit formed by variegated clay, silt with interbedded grey and brown sand, and sandstone beds". This strata dates to the Santonian stage, around 86 to 84 mya (million years ago). "Ajkaceratops" shared its environment with other dinosaurs such as "Rhabdodon", nodosaurid ankylosaurs, Non-Avian theropods and enantiornithine birds, as well as eusuchian crocodiles, azhdarchid pterosaurs, bothremydid turtles and teiid lizards.