microrobert
07-23-2013, 06:57 PM
Study Confirms Head-Butting Behavior in Dome-Headed Dinosaurs
According to a study by scientists at the University of Wisconsin and Yale University, small, herbivorous, dome-headed dinosaurs from the late Cretaceous period known as pachycephalosaurids (http://dinosaurs.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Pachycephalosauridae) used domes atop their heads to fight for territory and mates.
http://cdn4.sci-news.com/images/2013/07/image_1247_1-Pachycephalosaurus.jpg (http://cdn4.sci-news.com/images/enlarge/image_1247_1e-Pachycephalosaurus.jpg)
Reconstruction of the pachycephalosaurid Pachycephalosaurus wyomingensis with cranial lesion (Peterson JE et al)
Paleontologists have heavily debated for several decades the adaptive significance of pachycephalosaurid domes. Some suggested that they are the product of sexual selection as an adaptation for species recognition, others that they are weapon employed in intraspecific combat.
“There are two primary hypotheses proposed to explain dome function,” study lead author Dr Joseph Peterson from the University of Wisconsin and his colleagues explained in a paper published in the open-access journal PLoS ONE (http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0068620).
Study Confirms Head-Butting Behavior in Dome-Headed Dinosaurs | Paleontology | Sci-News.com (http://www.sci-news.com/paleontology/science-head-butting-dome-headed-dinosaurs-01247.html)
According to a study by scientists at the University of Wisconsin and Yale University, small, herbivorous, dome-headed dinosaurs from the late Cretaceous period known as pachycephalosaurids (http://dinosaurs.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Pachycephalosauridae) used domes atop their heads to fight for territory and mates.
http://cdn4.sci-news.com/images/2013/07/image_1247_1-Pachycephalosaurus.jpg (http://cdn4.sci-news.com/images/enlarge/image_1247_1e-Pachycephalosaurus.jpg)
Reconstruction of the pachycephalosaurid Pachycephalosaurus wyomingensis with cranial lesion (Peterson JE et al)
Paleontologists have heavily debated for several decades the adaptive significance of pachycephalosaurid domes. Some suggested that they are the product of sexual selection as an adaptation for species recognition, others that they are weapon employed in intraspecific combat.
“There are two primary hypotheses proposed to explain dome function,” study lead author Dr Joseph Peterson from the University of Wisconsin and his colleagues explained in a paper published in the open-access journal PLoS ONE (http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0068620).
Study Confirms Head-Butting Behavior in Dome-Headed Dinosaurs | Paleontology | Sci-News.com (http://www.sci-news.com/paleontology/science-head-butting-dome-headed-dinosaurs-01247.html)