Movies - Pachycephalosaurus

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* Pachycephalosaurus is a dinosaur of the family Pachycephalosauridae, from the Late Cretaceous of North America. (This is in the Ornithischia order.) Its name means "Thick headed reptile". It was a herbivorous creature, which lived in the late Cretaceous period. It is only known from a single skull and a few extremely thick skull roofs.

Anatomy

Pachycephalosaurus was probably bipedal and was the largest of the bone-headed dinosaurs, it is famous for having a large, bony dome atop its skull, up to 25cm (10 inches) thick, which safely cushioned its brain. The dome's rear was edged with bony knobs and short bony spikes were projected upwards from the snout; these suggest that despite their bipedal stance they were not ornithopods but relatives of the ceratopsians.

From other Pachycephalosauridae it was been estimated that the Pachycephalosaurus was around the length of a large car, maybe around 4.6m long (15 feet) and had a fairly short, thick neck, short arms, a bulky body, long legs, and a heavy tail, which was likely to have been held rigid by hard bony tendons. Large eye-sockets that faced forward suggest that the animal had sharp eyes capable of binocular vision.

Lifestyle

Scientists suspect that Pachycephalosaurus and its dome-headed relatives were the bipedal equivilants of the bighorned sheep of today. In the mating season, big males evidently ran at one another, clashing heads to decide which would dominate and mate with a herd of females. Scientists have estimated that the thickness and size of the dome varied with the age. It is likely also that they used their domed heads for defence against predators. While feeding, a Pachycephalosaurus herd would have been keenly aware of how close they could safely allowa tyrannosaur to approach before they ran away.

Diet

Scientists do not yet know what these dinosaurs ate. Having very small, ridged teeth they could not have chewed up tough, fibrous plants as effectively as other dinosaurs of the same time period. It is assumed that 'pachycephalosaurs' lived on a mixed diet of leaves, seeds, fruit and insects.

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