Vagaceratops (“wandering horned face”) was originally thought to be a species of Chasmosaurus, but was separated out into its own genus in 2010 after new studies suggested it was much more closely related to Kosmoceratops.
Measuring around 5m long (16’4”), it lived about 75 million years ago in Alberta, Canada – much farther north than its Utahn relative, inspiring its “wandering” genus name. It had a short nose horn, and brow horns reduced down to low bosses, along with a distinctive squared-off frill topped with a row of forward-curving spikes.
Ceratopsid forelimb posture has been a long-standing puzzle in paleontology. While the hindlimbs were clearly held straight under the body, the bones of the forelimbs are a lot more ambiguous, and various different arrangements have been proposed over the years from straight to heavily sprawled and lizard-like.
While the fully sprawled position mostly fell out of favor during the dinosaur renaissance, debate continued about whether ceratopsids had a fully straight forelimb posture or some sort of in-between arrangement with the elbows slightly bent out to the sides. In 2007, digital scans of Vagaceratops’ forelimb bones were used to model how it could have walked, suggesting the best fit was in fact the intermediate position.