5 Facts About Pachycephalosaurus

Pachycephalosaurus, which means "Thick Headed Lizard," was discovered by William Winkley in 1938 in Montana. Other Pachycephalosaurus fossils have been found in Alberta, Canada, the western United States, Isle of Wight, Mongolia, and Madagascar. Pachycephalosaurus lived during the late Cretaceous period, around 65-76 million years ago, which was around the same time Albertosaurus, Tyrannosaurus rex, and Ankylosaurus lived. Here are five interesting facts about Pachycephalosaurus.

Pachycephalosaurus Fact #1: Pachycephalosaurus had a dome-head, with a thick skull-up to ten inches thick-surrounded by bumpy knobs, a small brain, and big eyes. Pachycephalosaurus was about 15 feet long and weighed about 950 pounds. It had a good sense of smell, short arms, and a stiff tail.

Pachycephalosaurus Fact #2: Pachycephalosaurus lived in groups, or herds, in coastal regions. It probably ran away to defend itself from predators.

Pachycephalosaurus Fact #3: Pachycephalosaurus was an herbivore, which meant it ate plants, fruits, and seeds. It had small sharp teeth.

Pachycephalosaurus Fact #4: Pachycephalosaurus was the biggest pachycephalosaurid, which is a thick-headed dinosaur with a thick skull. In some cases, only the thick dome-shaped skull was found while the rest of the pachycephalosaurus fossil had degraded.

Pachycephalosaurus Fact #5: Until recently, paleontologists thought that Pachycephalosaurus used its thick skull to combat rivals via head butting in mating and dominance battles. Paleontologists also thought that Pachycephalosaurus used its head as a way to defend against predators. However, Mark Goodwin, from the University of California, Berkeley, analyzed many pachycephalosaur skulls and found no evidence of healed scars. He also found that the thick skull bone of Pachycephalosaurus and other pachycephalosaurs were porous and fragile, and not rigid and solid. If Pachycephalosaurus or other pachycephalosaurs had head butted each other, then they probably would have killed each other. Instead, Pachycephalosaurus may have used its thick skull for flank-butting purposes, which means it pushed its head up against the sides of other animals. This would injure the other animal, but it would not cause any damage to Pachycephalosaurus.

Other pachycephalosaurs include Wannanosaurus, Stegoceras, Goyocephale, Stygimoloch, Sphaerotholus, and Dracorex hogwartsia (a dinosaur discovered in 2004 and named after the Harry Potter series-it's name means Dragon King of Hogwarts).

References:

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/prehistoric/pachycephalosaurus-wyomingensis.html

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/dinosaurs/dinos/Pachy.shtml

http://dinosaurs.about.com/od/herbivorousdinosaurs/p/dracorex.htm