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Day 21: I'm not sure why, but lately all my dinosaurs seem to be starting with 'p'. Here's another. You've got to love Pachycephalosaurus wyomingensis. Imagine a mediaeval monk, complete with tonsure, then sprinkle his head with bony knobs, and you're... okay, not very close to Pachycephalosaurus, but it's a start. Not a big dinosaur - this one might make it to your shoulders, depending on how tall you are - but what it lacked in size, it seems to have made up for in attitude. Pachycephalosaurus is famous for its skull, and rightly so. Bristling with bumps, and with crowns as much as ten inches thick, it looks like they were made for fighting - specifically, for headbutting. Perhaps they fought each other the way that goats do today. Perhaps they deterred would-predators. Perhaps both. Either way, without some serious protection, a knock from a skull like that could do some damage.
An interesting thing about Pachycephalosaurus - if you need more interesting than a skull that would put a dragon to shame - is that, whilst long assumed to be herbivorous (its teeth were the flat, grinding molars familiar to herbivores) a recent skull discovery also bore very definite canines. So, was it an omnivore? Was Pachycephalosaurus charging about the late Cretaceous (North America, c. 67 million years ago), munching on smaller dinosaurs? Maybe it headbutted them to death. Possibly further discoveries will shed a little light. In the meantime, Pachycephalosaurus skulls. Admire, and mourn your own skully shortcomings.
An interesting thing about Pachycephalosaurus - if you need more interesting than a skull that would put a dragon to shame - is that, whilst long assumed to be herbivorous (its teeth were the flat, grinding molars familiar to herbivores) a recent skull discovery also bore very definite canines. So, was it an omnivore? Was Pachycephalosaurus charging about the late Cretaceous (North America, c. 67 million years ago), munching on smaller dinosaurs? Maybe it headbutted them to death. Possibly further discoveries will shed a little light. In the meantime, Pachycephalosaurus skulls. Admire, and mourn your own skully shortcomings.
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I bet other dinosaurs gave them a wide berth.
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