Pachycephalosaurus
Scientific name
- Scientific name
- Pachycephalosaurus
How to say it in other languages
- Chinese
- 厚頭龍
- Japanese
- パキケファロサウルス
Facts from Wikipedia’s “Pachycephalosaurus” page and Wikispecies (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Pachycephalosaurus was a genus of dinosaur which lived during the last five million years of the Upper Cretaceous. It lived in what is now North America. This member of the Pachycephalosaurid family is known from a single skull and a few thick skull roofs. From this it is estimated that its length was about 4.5 to 5 metres long (about 15 feet).
Pachycephalosaurus was a herbivore. It lived on a mixed diet of leaves, seeds, and fruit. The sharp, serrated teeth would have been very effective for shredding plants.
Written for younger readers
Pachycephalosaurus, in simpler words
This version comes from Wikijunior, a set of books written for children aged 8 to 11. It is shorter and uses plainer language than the article above.
From Wikijunior: Dinosaurs
Pachycephalosaurus was a dinosaur which lived in the late Cretaceous period in North America. It gave it’s name to a group of dinosaurs called the Pachycephalosauridae. It is most famous for its oddly-shaped head, which has a very unique look.
Pachycephalosaurus was a dome-headed dinosaur. Its huge head housed an incredibly thick skull, a tiny brain, and large eyes. Its rounded skull was up to 10 inches thick (25 cm).
Pachycephalosaurus grew to be about 15 feet long (4.6 m) and may have weighed roughly 950 pounds (430 kg). Pachycephalosaurus probably had a good sense of smell. It had bumpy knobs on its snout and along the rear of its skull. This plant-eater had short forelimbs and a stiff tail (which had a distinctive mesh of interwoven tendons surrounding its rear portion).
The Pachycephalosaurus was 15-16 feet long. It stood on two legs and had two short arms with five fingers each. However, the most notable thing about its appearance was the large dome on top of its head. This skull was almost a foot thick. It was covered with armor and spikes.
The Pachycephalosaurus was a vegetarian, despite its intimidating appearance. From its teeth, we have been able to get a good idea of the diet it ate. It is believed to have eaten mostly tough plants, but also sometimes fruit and seeds.
Pachycephalosaurus lived from about 70 to 65 million years ago (Cretaceous) in the Mesozoic era. It was among the last of the dinosaurs to evolve. Like all other dinosaurs that lived at the same time as it, it became extinct about 65 million years ago because of an unknown cause.
Pachycephalosaurus walked on two legs, and was not a very fast dinosaur. When it walked or ran, it probably held its back level to the ground. It may have gone on all fours to forage for low-lying plants.
The Pachycephalosaurus was the dinosaur equivalent of many large vegetarians today. It is believed that they lived in a forest in the Cretaceous period.
Pachycephalosaurus was discovered in 1938 by William Winkley on the family ranch outside of Ekalaka, Montana, USA. It was named Pachycephalosaurus in 1943 by Barnum Brown and Erich M. Schlaikjer. Although complete fossils are rare, many thick skull fragments have been found. Pachycephalosaurus and other pachycephalosaur fossils have been found in Alberta, Canada, the western United States, the Isle of Wight, Mongolia and Madagascar.
Where this page comes from
The article above is adapted from “Pachycephalosaurus” on Simple English Wikipedia, by its contributors. We removed reference markers, navigation boxes and tables, expanded measurement templates into readable numbers, and kept the prose otherwise intact. The simpler version is adapted from Wikijunior on Wikibooks.
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