A newly discovered dinosaur species, Bisticeratops froeseorum, has been named in memory of the late founder of Tangerine Dream, Edgar Froese.

New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science (NMMNHS) Curator Dr. Spencer Lucas and Research Associate Sebastian Dalman, along with Dr. Steven E. Jasinski from Harrisburg University, published an article in the latest edition of Bulletin of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science describing a new genus and species of horned dinosaur from New Mexico.

The team named the dinosaur Bisticeratops froeseorum (pronounced “Biss-tie-SAYR-uh-tops frose-e-or-um”), after the Bisti/De-na-zin Wilderness area where the fossil was collected, and for the Froese family of the musical group Tangerine Dream, one of Dalman’s favorite bands.

“Bisticeratops adds to the diversity of Late Cretaceous horned dinosaurs from New Mexico,” said Dr. Lucas. “It shows that important discoveries and analyses continue to be made in the state in our effort to understand better the history of dinosaurs during the last few million years before their extinction.”

Bisticeratops was a horned dinosaur, or ceratopsian, from the same group as the famous Triceratops, with an estimated body length of about 18 feet. This plant-eating dinosaur lived in the jungles and swamps near the seacoast that submerged what is now northwestern New Mexico 74 million years ago.

The fossil itself includes most of the skull of the dinosaur. The skull of Bisticeratops shows bite marks from a large predatory dinosaur, probably a tyrannosaur, although it is uncertain whether this was from active predation while Bisticeratops was alive or due to scavenging after it had died.