New Stegoceras Skeletal! (and Pachycephalosaur Facts)
New Stegoceras Skeletal!
Stegoceras has to be one of my favorite dinosaurs; it is a medium sized parasaurolophid with a short bony frill and a large, thick surface on its head. It lived during the Cretaceous era, specifically 77-76 million years ago.
In this post, I will talk about this fascinating creature along with introducing a new kind of skeletal post on this blog. Yes, you heard it right! From now on the skeletal posts will be full posts and not just blant and boring! Let's get into this!
The Skull
Stegoceras's skull is the first thing you notice on the creature once you see it. It has many remarkable features, with the most repmarkable ones being its bony frill and the big, rounded surface known as the "Dome"on the top of its head.
CT scan of Stegoceras validum skull specimen UALVP 2
Theories about the use of the skull
Most pachycephalosaurids have a similar skull structure to that of Stegoceras. Unfortunately, we can't point out what its use was for 100%, however we have some good theories which have some valid evidence behind them.
1. Mating Competition
This theory states that the reason pachycephalosaurids had this dome is so that the males could use it to compete for a mate, in the same way modern reindeers use their antlers. We do have some evidence of that theory, with many signs of damage which were possibly caused by another male.
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| Damage in a Pachycephalosaur's dome |
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| Two Male S.validum competing for a mate |
2.Mating Display
This theory states that the dome was used as a mating display which held colourful structures used to attract a mate. This theory states that the frill in the back of the skull serves the very same purpose. We do have some evidence of this theory, some of which being well organized vertical arrangements found inside the dome using CT scans.
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