Kosmoceratops (KOZ-mo-SARA-tops[1]) is a genus of ceratopsid dinosaur that lived in what is now Utah,

United States, about 76.4–75.5 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous period. Specimens were
discovered in the Kaiparowits Formation of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in 2006
and 2007, including an adult skull and postcranial skeleton and partial subadults. In 2010, the adult was
made the holotype of the new genus and species Kosmoceratops richardsoni; the generic name means
"ornate horned face", and the specific name honors Scott Richardson, who found the specimens. The
find was part of a spate of ceratopsian discoveries in the early 21st century, and Kosmoceratops was
considered significant due to its elaborate skull ornamentation.

Kosmoceratops had an estimated length of 4.5 m (15 ft) and a weight of 1.2 t (1.3 short tons). As a
ceratopsid, it would have been quadrupedal with a heavily constructed skeleton. It had a triangular beak
with a pointed tip and a blade-like nasal horn with a flattened upper portion. While the horns above the
eyes were oriented forwards or hindwards in most of its relatives, the horns of Kosmoceratops pointed
up and to the sides, then downwards, ending in pointed tips. The neck frill was short from front to back,
with small parietal fenestrae (openings through the frill), and ten hook-like processes on the hind
margin, with eight curving forwards and two curving to the sides. With fifteen well-developed horns and
horn-like structures, it possessed the most ornate skull in any known dinosaurs. Kosmoceratops was a
chasmosaurine ceratopsid and was originally suggested to be closely related to Vagaceratops (which
also had forward-curving processes on the back of the frill) but this has been debated, some authors
finding the latter closer to Chasmosaurus. Kosmoceratops is also considered closely related to
Spiclypeus, which had a similar frill.

Studies of bone histology show that Kosmoceratops grew rapidly and had an elevated metabolism,
similar to modern birds and mammals. The teeth of ceratopsids were adapted to processing fibrous
plants; coprolites (fossilized dung) from the Kaiparowits Formation that contain wood may have been
produced by ceratopsids. The functions of ceratopsian frills and horns have been debated, including
display, combat, and species recognition. The Kaiparowits Formation dates to the late Campanian age
and was deposited on Laramidia, an island continent, when North America was divided at the center by
the Western Interior Seaway. This environment was dominated by wetlands and supported a diverse
fauna, including dinosaurs such as the chasmosaurine Utahceratops. Based in part on the relationship
between Kosmoceratops and other chasmosaurines from around the same time, it has been proposed
that Laramidia was divided into dinosaur "provinces" with separate endemic zones (this interpretation
suggests that Kosmoceratops in the south was most closely related to the geographically separated
Vagaceratops in the north), but this has been contested.