Stygimoloch

Stygimoloch was a plant-eating dinosaur that had bony spikes and knobs on its skull. This bipedal dinosaur lived during the late Cretaceous period, about 68 million to 65 million years ago.

Stygimoloch
Reconstructed skull at the Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Order:	Ornithischia
Family:	Pachycephalosauridae
Genus:	Stygimoloch Galton & Sues, 1983
Species:	S. spinifer
Binomial name
Stygimoloch spinifer Galton & Sues, 1983
Synonyms
Dracorex? Bakker et al., 2006

Like other pachycephalosaurids, Pachycephalosaurus was a bipedal herbivore with an extremely thick skull roof. It had long hindlimbs and small forelimbs. Pachycephalosaurs probably head-butted as a defense and in rivalry.

22% of all domes examined had lesions suggesting osteomyelitis. This is an infection of the bone resulting from trauma. So pachycephalosaurid domes were probably used in intra-species combat.

Stygimoloch fossils were first discovered in North America, in Montana and Wisconsin. The first was discovered in Hell Creek, Montana and was named in 1983 by Peter M. Galton, a British paleontologist and Hans-Dieter Sues, a German paleontologist.

Stygimoloch Media

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  Pachycephalosaur Skull

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  The holotype adult skull of P. "reinheimeri" (DMNS 469)

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  Reconstruction of Pachycephalosaurus wyomingensis based on the “Sandy” specimen.

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  Pachycephalosaurus wyomingensis size chart

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  Casts of three skulls, representing possible growth stages, Museum of the Rockies

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  Growth series showing reduction of spikes and growth of dome with age, according to Horner and Goodwin

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  Size of an adult P. wyomingensis (green) and potential growth stages, compared to a human

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  Restoration of head-butting subadults

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  Depressions on the skull of specimen BMRP 2001.4.1

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  Restoration of a specimen with a cranial lesion