Pachycephalosaurus wyomingensis - North American Dinosaurs
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(pack-ee-sess-a-loh-sor-uhss)
"thick-headed lizard"
Describer Gilmore, 1931
Also Known As Tylosteus Leidy, 1872
Type of Species wyomingensis
Order Ornithischia
SubOrder --
InfraOrder Pachycephalosauria
Micro-Order --
Family Pachycephalosauridae
Size 15 feet (4.6 meters) long
Period Late Cretaceous, 65 million years ago
Fossilsite Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Alaska, USA;
Alberta, Canada
Diet Herbivore
Pachycephalosaurus lived during the Late Cretaceous Period, 65 million years ago in parts of the USA and Alberta, Canada. This dinosaur was the largest of a group some times called"thick-headed lizard", which had specially thick skulls that are presumed to have been used for head butting contest. Some of these dinosaurs in this group had fringes of bone, knobs and spikes around the side of their heads. Pachycephalosaurus itself had one of these fringes on the back of its head, as well as small spikes on its nose.
Pachycephalosaurus is only known from its skull, which was first unEarthed in 1943 by two dinosaur hunters named Brown and Schaikjer. The rest of Pachycephalosaurus' body dimensions have been suggested by comparing it to other dinosaurs from the same family, such as Stegoceras. The whole dinosaur was probably 15 feet long. Pachycephalosaurus skull was topped by a huge dome of bone that was 10 inches thick these dinosaurs' skull was so peculiar that it was mistaken at first, by a giant armadillo like reptile when first discovered.
Pachycephalosaurus wyomingensis Paleo Gallery
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