Love Science: Paleontologist Proposes To Girlfriend Scientist in 'Hellboy' Dino Paper

Credit for a rare dinosaur fossil discovery can overwhelm any scientist with a sense of achievement but a recent paper on the subject also caused some blushes.

According to CNET, a paper published in the journal Current Biology describes Regaliceratops peterhewsi, dubbed Hellboy due to the toughness of the location of its find more than a decade ago in Alberta, Canada, an area where horned specimens were not found before, making the find rare and special.

The paper's lead author Caleb M Brown at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology who acknowledged another expert Lorna O'Brien's contribution popped the question in the acknowledgements section.

"Funding for this research was provided by the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology and the Royal Tyrrell Museum Cooperating Society.....C.M.B. would specifically like to highlight the ongoing and unwavering support of Lorna O'Brien. Lorna, will you marry me?" Brown wrote.

A stunned O'Brien had reportedly said yes. Brown later said he hoped his proposal would not take the sheen away from the dinosaur itself which researchers believe is a hybrid of two groups of horned dinosaurs.

"This marks the first time that evolutionary convergence in horn-like display structures has been demonstrated between dinosaur clades, similar to those seen in fossil and extant mammals," researchers said about the fossil.