Agathaumas

great wonder

• agathos · Greek · great, good
• thauma · Greek · wonder, marvel

The name Agathaumas comes from two Greek roots: 'agathos' (great or good) and 'thauma' (wonder or marvel), together meaning 'great wonder' or 'great marvel'. It was chosen by Edward Drinker Cope in 1872 to express amazement at the sheer size of the fragmentary remains he was describing. The fossils were among the first large ceratopsian material known to science, making their discovery genuinely remarkable at the time.

Named by

Cope

Year named

1872

Period

Late Cretaceous

Stage

Maastrichtian

Found in

Laramie Formation, Wyoming, USA

Agathaumas is generally regarded as a nomen dubium. It was the first ceratopsian dinosaur to be named, but it is known only from very fragmentary postcranial remains (vertebrae and hip elements), with no skull material. Because ceratopsian taxonomy relies heavily on skull and frill morphology, these fragments cannot be confidently assigned to any particular genus. Some historical reconstructions (notably Charles R. Knight's famous painting) depicted it with the horns and frill of a Triceratops-like animal, but this was entirely speculative. It is not considered a valid genus by most modern authorities.