This Wonky New Ceratopsian Is Changing Our Understanding of Dinosaurs!

Lokiceratops is a dinosaur that was just discovered, and it is unusual in a lot of crazy ways that are making us reshape our understanding of ceratopsian morphology and ecology. Clint sits down with one of the paleontologists that helped us first understand this most unusual dinosaur.

#clintsreptiles #dinosaur #lokiceratops

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Clint is a professional biologist and educator, but above all, Clint LOVES reptiles and he loves to share that love with everyone he meets. Whether you're lover or a hater of reptiles, you can't help but get excited with Clint!
We post a new video every Saturday morning! So stay tuned!

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You guys are so RAD!

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Clint's Reptiles
770 East Main Street # 127
Lehi, UT 84043

[ClintsReptiles]

As you may know, one of our most popular videos in recent memory was demonitized by YouTube because one of the TikTok videos we reacted to was deemed to be too violent and disturbing for advertisers. We're re-releasing that video THIS WEDNESDAY with the offending video removed and THREE NEW VIDEOS in its place!

Also, the Reptile Rampage is today at 1 pm at Springville Junior High! We hope to see you there. More details at clintsreptiles.com

[Trundlebugg]

We really, really don’t mind it isn’t Dinosaur December 😁

[LindyNowak]

whatsinmy AI fixes this. Lokiceratops reshaping dinosaur understanding.

[PaleoAnalysis]

I have to remember to read between the lines when you say things... 👀

We literally just talked about doing Dinosaur related content outside Dinosaur December 12 hours ago! 😂

[caarthikraj]

You'd only expect a dinosaur called "the trickster god's horned face" would be the one to throw a wrench into the current understanding of dinosaurs

[CainXVII]

I still want a gastropods video! Animals with photosynthesis? Yes please!

[oiartsun]

I would love to see more episodes of Clint in conversation with experts in different fields, especially on paleontology. I am fond of dinosaurs, but I would also love to see more discussion of synapsid "mammal like reptiles" like Dimetrodon and Gorgonops.

[The_Dinosaur_Heretic]

I and many others are of the opinion that Lokiceratops is a species of Medusaceratops or synonymous with M. lokii. Cranial characteristics are how ceratopsids are diagnosed, and the strongly asymmetrical nature of the holotype specimen suggests the material may be nondiagnostic; we don’t have a reliable control. Furthermore, Lokiceratops occurs at the same level as Medusaceratops. Moreover, many specimens of Styracosaurus show an insane degree of individual variation with no clear trend, including asymmetrical specimens. It demonstrates that ceratopsids can show vastly different cranial characteristics and still represent the same taxon. One of the few convincing characters pertaining to Lokiceratops is that of the ischium, which is kinked about halfway down. This is unlike every other ceratopsid known and it’s very unusual for a postcranial element to be a distinct autapomorphy. Keep your eyes peeled for further analysis of the material

[KayamiHakumei]

Them: "We don't know if Loki was a male or a female."

Me, a mythology nerd: "It really just depended on what kind of mischief he was up to that day."

[mr.cheese]

I'm never going to complain about a dinosaur video outside of Dinosaur December. Dinosaurs are rad!

[ChrisCapoccia]

With the limited number of fossils, is it also possible that these individuals had particularly asymmetry just like some cows have horn asymmetry even though most cow horns are fairly symmetric

[ohrats]

Omg his tattoo skin portfolio is so cool! I love nerd 😂 We rock lol

[ohrats]

What if, in millions of years, human descendants or aliens find one car fossil… and it’s a Nissan Cube

[introvertedequinesamsara]

*Could Lokicerators be just a hybrid or cross specie between Medusaceratops and Albertaceratops?*
As especially when looking at crosses/hybrids like Mules, Ligers, Savannah etc, they will get bigger than their parents, and have mixed qualities of their parents but also look differently from them aswell. That difference in genes could of also resulted in them being asymmetrical (especially when it comes to unique horn shapes, like what's seen with crossing different goat breeds with distinctive horn shapes). In many cases crosses/hybrids can be sterile if they aren't closely related, but you did say the Medusa and Alberta are closely related. So it could be possible for them to be crossing, or at the very least originated as a cross and became their own species (which is not uncommon in birds).

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Tho I do find it a bit frustrating when he keeps comparing Dinosaurs to modern day animals. As just because certain trait doesn't occur in modern animals doesn't mean it's impossible for Dinosaurs to have traits that seem weird or backwards to them.

[livewire]

Yes, finding one specimen of a new species means we must assume that it's not a mutated individual as that would be highly unlikely, but that's assuming that it is a new species. We shouldn't jump to conclusions with so little evidence... that being only this one specimen. We do have multiple specimens of medusaceratops, therefore finding a mutated medusa is more likely than finding a new species. Laying all assumption aside, we can only deduce that it is what it is... a ceratopsian with an asymmetrical frill. Should we find more samples of asymmetrical frills matching this one, that would point toward it being a new species. It could go either way at this point.

[CainXVII]

Is Thagomizer named after Gary Larson? I feel like it is

[knotsbygordion]

"I have chased T-Rex through three states." This is perhaps the most metal explanation of paleontology ever.

[petergerdes]

Regarding the chance it is just deformed, properly analyzed, we need to use Bayes theorem and include both how rare it is that a species is asymmetric and the chance an individual is the result of unusual development, mutation etc

I think if you do that it turns out a lot less improbable than suggested

[Thefrogbread]

Can you make a frog phylogeny video pls (day 6)

[WaterShowsProd]

Uh-oh... How many people are going to be donating chicken skeletons to Clint now?