Prenocelphale prenes -Maryanska et Osmolska, 1974- cast of the skull
Archosauria:
Ornithischia: Pachycephalosauria: Pachycephalosauridae
Locality: Omnogov, Gobi
Desert, southern Mongolia
Age: Late Cretaceous (Late Campanian-Early Maastrichtian),
74 million years ago
Meaning of the name: "sloping head"
The
pachycephalosaurians, known mainly from the Late Cretaceous of the northern hemisphere,
were bipedals with unusually thickened skull roof forming a dome. This dome was flat
in the homalocephalids (Homalocephalae) and swelled in pachycephalosaurieds
(Prenocephalae). It is supposed, the dome might serve as a combat ram for intraspecific
competition, like horn in mammals. This interpretation is comformed with strengthened
rigid vertebral column that could transmit effectively forces from the head to the
pelvic when bumping heads.
