Ferenceratops is an extinct genus of ceratopsian dinosaurs known from the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) Sânpetru and Densuș-Ciula formations of Romania. The genus contains a single species, Ferenceratops shqiperorum, known from a partial skeleton and pelvis. These fossils, in addition to many other isolated or associated remains, were originally referred to the ornithopod Zalmoxes. Phylogenetic analyses based on new remains of Ajkaceratops suggest Ferenceratops was a close relative of this genus, as part of a distinct lineage of previously unrecognized European ceratopsians.
Ferenceratops is an extinct genus of ceratopsian dinosaurs known from the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) Sânpetru and Densuș-Ciula formations of Romania. The genus contains a single species, Ferenceratops shqiperorum, known from a partial skeleton and pelvis. These fossils, in addition to many other isolated or associated remains, were originally referred to the ornithopod Zalmoxes. Phylogenetic analyses based on new remains of Ajkaceratops suggest Ferenceratops was a close relative of this genus, as part of a distinct lineage of previously unrecognized European ceratopsians.
== History == thumb|left|Reconstructed skeleton based on the original iguanodont classification, [[Musee d'Histoire Naturelle, Brussels]] In 2003, David B. Weishampel and colleagues described the new genus Zalmoxes based on fossil material found in many Maastrichtian-aged localities throughout the Hațeg Basin of Transylvania, Romania. Using this material, the authors recognized Rhabdodontidae as a new family of iguanodontian ornithopod dinosaurs, also including the genus Rhabdodon. Weishampel et al. established Zalmoxes robustus as the type species, which had previously been placed in the genera Mochlodon and Rhabdodon. They further named Z. shqiperorum as a new species in the genus Zalmoxes, based on remains from the Sânpetru Formation previously identified as "M."or "R." robustus. The specific name honors the people of Shqiperia, which is the name used by Albanians for their nation. is likely derived from the Albanian word , meaning , in turn becoming , or . The holotype specimen of this species, housed at the Natural History Museum in London, England as NHMUK PV R 4900, is a partial skeleton, including an incomplete right and , left and , part of an , a complete right and distal (bottom end) left , and a complete left . It had been described in 1928 by Baron Franz Nopcsa as "individual I" in a publication discussing Rhabdodon. Nopcsa had always been fascinated by Albania. Weishampel et al. referred several additional specimens to Z. shqiperorum, some of which were found in isolation or association. These include a left dentary, right and left femur, two ischia, and a proximal , also from the Sanpetru Formation, in addition to a left dentary and partial associated remains of a juvenile individual (including a associated with dorsal, , and vertebrae) from the Densuș-Ciula Formation.
Discovered by embedding cosine similarity (sentence-transformers MiniLM, 384-dim).