DID YOU KNOW?

Its scientific name is Regaliceratops peterhewsi, and that regal genus was inspired by the dinosaur’s crown-like frill. Regaliceratops comes from the Latin word “regalis” meaning “royal” and the Greek word “ceratops” meaning “horned face,” while peterhewsi honours Peter Hews, the Canadian geologist who first discovered the skull.

Palaeontologists from the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller, Alta., spent three years excavating the 268.64 kg fossil depicted on your coin’s reverse. According to Dr. François Therrien, the museum’s Curator of Dinosaur Palaeoecology: “When it was being prepared at the Royal Tyrrell Museum and before it received its official scientific name, Regaliceratops was given the nickname ‘Hellboy’ because the fossil specimen had been very difficult to collect in the field and it was encased in very hard rock, making it very difficult to clean and prepare in the lab.”

Despite being close cousins, Mercuriceratops (featured on the 2022 coin) and Regaliceratops don’t look alike. “In fact, Regaliceratops is a highly unusual ceratopsian. Although it is a member of a group of ceratopsians that possess large brow horns, a small nasal horn, and a large shield-like frill with a scalloped edge, Regaliceratops doesn’t have the same appearance as its cousin Mercuriceratops,” explains Dr. Therrien. “Instead, it mimics another group of ceratopsians that have small brow horns, a large nasal horn, and a short but elaborately ornamented frill, like Centrosaurus and Styracosaurus.”