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| Poor Prenocephale can't actually see why he has such a headache. |
Meaning: inclined sloping head
Time: Late Cretaceous, c 72 million years ago
Place: Mongolia
Size: 2.2-2.4 metres (7.2-7.9 feet) long
Type of Dinosaur: pachycephalosaur (bonehead plant-eater)
Prenocephale is one of the better-known members of the bonehead dinosaur group. The thickened domes of bone on top of these dinosaurs' heads has been a puzzle. Initially, they were thought to be for headbutting each other but this idea fell out of favour. Research in recent years, like this study by Joseph E Peterson and colleagues, suggests that the number of injuries observed on boneheads' domes supports their use in head-to-head combat. Additionally, the domes were probably coated in a keratin layer. This poor Prenocephale has taken a bad hit at just the wrong angle, leaving him with nasty lesions developing on his injured dome.
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