After a particularly long and laborious excavation, a team of scientists detailed a new dinosaur species they denominated "Hellboy."

According to CBC News, authors of a study published in the journal Current Biology described a new species apparently related to the triceratops. But making Regaliceratops peterhewsi distinct are the horns, one above each eye, in addition to the one on its snout.

"The specimen comes from a geographic region of Alberta where we have not found horned dinosaurs before, so from the onset we knew it was important," study co-author Caleb Brown, of the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology in Alberta, Canada, said in a press release. "However, it was not until the specimen was being slowly prepared from the rocks in the laboratory that the full anatomy was uncovered, and the bizarre suite of characters revealed. Once it was prepared it was obviously a new species, and an unexpected one at that. Many horned-dinosaur researchers who visited the museum did a double take when they first saw it in the laboratory."

Peter Hews (peterhewsi) is credited with discovering Hellboy's skull 10 years ago spotting it in a steep cliff just a meter above the water of the Oldman River in Alberta.

"It was a hellish quarry to work in," Brown told CBC News of the excavation.

Despite hard surrounding rock making the dig difficult, the river's population of bull trout was under special protection that disallowed the paleontologists from letting any rocks fall in the water. The skull measures in at more than a meter-and-a-half, but Hellboy also had the longest snout horn of any triceratops, at 28 centimeters.

"When the first horned dinosaurs were found - this was Triceratops - we thought these were probably used for defence," Brown said. "You have these iconic images of Triceratops doing battle with Tyrannosaurus rex.

"(But) the more horned dinosaurs that we find, the less the explanation of defence makes sense. There are a number of species where their horns would be pretty much useless in defence.

"What we're thinking now is that these were used for display. These were to impress members of the same or opposite sex and communicate with other species. That plate at the back of his skull is pretty much a billboard advertising for that individual."