Prehistoric Life/Dinosaurs/Pachycephalosaurs: Difference between revisions

{{tropeUseful Notes}}

* [[Rule of Cool]] is a merciless thing. It doesn’t matter if you are the most abundant, complete, well-known, or even the first discovered dinosaur within your group: if you aren’t cool enough, another [[Big Brother]]’ll take you the stock-role in pop-consciousness. ''Stegoceras'' matches perfectly all this. By far [[So Good We Mentioned It Twice|the most abundant, complete, well-known, and even the first discovered dinosaur within its group]], which should be renamed Stegocerates rather than [[Stock Dinosaurs|Pachycephalosaurs]]. 2.5 m long, ''Stegoceras'' was just half the length of ''Pachycephalosaurus'', but shared the same Friar-Tuckish face, having a smooth dome bordered by a collar of tubercles. But its dome was less-prominent, “only” 1 inch thick, and its nose lacked those spikes ''Pachycephalosaurus'' had. In short, the milder version of ''Pachycephalosaurus''. Both pachys lived in Late Cretaceous North America, but the smaller one was slightly earlier, as usual among Late Cretaceous dinosaurs. Was discovered in year 1924, but originally thought a weird ornithopod; the placement in the current group was made just after the discover of ''Pachycephalosaurus'' twenty years later. And don’t confound it with ''Stegosaurus'', please. As a pachy, “the other Stego” was a small, two-legged animal with a heavy head and the “body armor” limited to its skull. [[Running Gag|The other stego]] has also the distinction to be the ''only'' pachycephalosaur from which many individuals are known, not just one or two, and the only whose body-frame is known with sureness, to the point to be used as a model for other relatives: when you watch the body, legs, arms, neck and tail of a pachycephalosaur, you’re arguably watching those of ''Stegoceras''. In dinosaur books, [[Overly Long Gag|the other stego]] is often treated as the effective stock pachycephalosaur, unlike TV programs which will ever [[Rule of Cool|prefer the namesake of the family]]. For infos about its possible way-of-life, see ''[[Stock Dinosaurs|Pachycephalosaurus]]''.

* Many other pachycephalosaurs have received the suffix ''-cephale'' (meaning head in Greek), but two boneheads have gained [[Rule of Cool|much cooler]] names: ''Stygimoloch'' and ''Dracorex''. The former means [[Rule of Cool|Spiky Devil from the Death River]], the latter [[Rule of Cool|Dragon King]]. Both lived in USA alongside ''Pachycephalosaurus'' and, [[Sarcasm Mode|surprisingly]], are known only from one skull or little more. ''Stygimoloch'' was discovered in the eighties: Stegoceras-sized, was the only known pachycephalosaur with spikes developed into true ''horns'', and its dome was tall and narrow. ''Dracorex'' was found only in 2006: also of similar size, had an almost-as-spiky skull coupled this time with a flat head. Even though much more developed, the spiky ornamentation of both was very similar to ''Pachycephalosaurus''. Basing on this detail, some have proposed in the 2000s that the [[Cool Versus Awesome|“devil” and the “dragon”]] are just different immature stages of ''Pachycephalosaurus'', with ''Dracorex'' being the most immature growth-stage, ''Stygimoloch'' the intermediate one, and ''Pachycephalosaurus'' the fully-mature form. Talking about ''Dracorex'': as its mythical-sounding genus-name was not enough, its complete scientific name has even fallen in the [[Sure Why Not]] field: ''[[Harry Potter|Dracorex hogwartsia]]''. Our "[[Harry Potter|harrypottersaur]]" is also one of the few real dinosaurs portrayed in the TV series ''[[Primeval]]'', even though in a [[Somewhere a Paleontologist Is Crying|quite fanciful way]], with an [[Dinosaurs Are Dragons|actual dragon-like crest]] on its back.

* Remember ''Majungatholus'', that pachycephalosaur which revealed to be the horn of a ''giant theropod''? This was not an isolated case. ''Yaverlandia'' from Early Cretaceous England, was once mentioned as the “most ancient pachycephalosaur”, but its only remain (a tiny skull-dome with two small thickenings above) has been reclassified as a [[Science Marches On|bird-like theropod]]. Many things might deceptively resemble pachy domes and lead experts in error; the fact that pachycephalosaurs included some of the tiniest dinosaurs has also contributed to this. Still another piece of bone has been attributed to another virtually-unknown pachycephalosaur, which could get nonetheless a mention in the Guinness Book Of Records… as “the longest dinosaur name”: ''Micropachycephalosaurus'' [[hottip: *:<ref> [[Up to Eleven|It’s unlikely that someone will break this record with an even longer new dinosaur name… at least we hope]]</ref>, “tiny thick-headed lizard”. The ironical thing is, this was one of the smallest dinos that ever lived, only 50 cm/1.5 ft long. And was more likely a very primitive ceratopsian rather than a true pachycephalosaur.

[[Category:Prehistoric Life Pachycephalosaurs]]