Scientists have found Europe's 'missing' dinosaurs

Palaeontologists have revisited one of the long-standing misconceptions about dinosaur history. Horned dinosaurs - ceratopsians, thought to be almost absent from Europe, actually lived on the continent millions of years ago. They were simply mistaken for other animals for decades.

This conclusion was reached by an international team of scientists who published a study in the journal Nature. Using computed tomography and 3D modelling, the researchers re-examined the skull of the dinosaur Ajkaceratops kozmai, found in Hungary.

Ajkaceratops was previously thought to be a member of iguanodonts - herbivorous dinosaurs with a similar skull structure. However, the new study revealed key features of ceratopsians: a hooked beak and a characteristically curved palate typical of horned dinosaurs of Asia and North America.

This discovery allowed scientists to take a fresh look at other European finds. So, one of the fossilised skulls from Romania, which for many years attributed to different species, was another representative of ceratopsians. It was singled out as a separate genus and named Ferenceratops.

During the Late Cretaceous, Europe was a chain of islands connected to Asia and North America by land bridges. This explains how horned dinosaurs could have travelled to the continent, but because of fragmentary finds, their presence has long remained in doubt.

The authors of the study believe there could be many more such "hidden" dinosaurs. Many fossils found in Europe back in the XX century, need to be re-analysed using modern technology.

Scientists are calling for a major revision of European museum collections. They say the new discovery changes ideas about the evolution of herbivorous dinosaurs and shows that Europe's biodiversity in the Cretaceous was much richer than previously thought.

"Our results point to the need for a fundamental revision of the composition of Late Cretaceous dinosaurs in Europe," the authors of the paper said.