Name:
Prenocephale (Greek for "sloped head"); pronounced PREE-no-SEFF-ah-lee
Habitat:
Woodlands of Asia
Historical Period:
Late Cretaceous (70-65 million years ago)
Size and Weight:
About 6 feet long and 200 pounds
Diet:
Plants
Distinguishing Characteristics:
Thick, round skull
About Prenocephale:
You might not be surprised to learn that pachycephalosaurs ("thick-headed lizards") are often represented in the fossil record only by their massive skulls. To date, that's the case with Prenocephale; the rest of this herbivore has been reconstructed with reference to closely related boneheads such as Homalocephale and Tylocephale.
The abiding mystery about pachycephalosaurs is why they had such thick skulls in the first place. Some paleontologists believe the males head-butted each other for the favor of females, but some hold to the view that boneheads used their thickened noggins to butt the flanks of other members of the herd--or even curious predators--since a full-on collision might well have been fatal to both combatants!
