The Homo sapiens dinosaur
This is a page of Prehistoric Life with a very low number of surely-valid animals, because known pachycephalosaurs have always been very few, even less than the stegosaurs. The skull of the image is of Prenocephale.
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Non-Stock Pachycephalosaurs
Two Common Suffixes: "-cephale" and "-tholus"
- Many pachycephalosaurs have received the suffix -cephale, meaning head in Greek. Goyocephale
means "decorated head", was found in Mongolia and was flat-headed like a Homalocephale but with a pair of canine-like teeth; Tylocephale means "swollen head", was also Mongolian and with the tallest dome among pachycephalosaurians; Colepiocephale means "knuckle-head" and lived in Alberta, Canada; Sinocephale means "Chinese head" and was once believed an Asian Stegoceras specimen; Alaskacephale found in Alaska maybe was the closest relative of Pachycephalosaurus. Some others end with -tholus, meaning "dome": ex. North American Gravitholus ("heavy dome"), Acrotholus ("high dome") & "Ornatotholus" ("ornated dome", today synonymized with Stegoceras), as well as "Majungatholus" ("Majunga's dome") of Madagascar, and Sphaerotholus ("ball-like dome"), once believed the North American species of Prenocephale. Described in 2021, Sinocephale is today believed by some the most ancient-known pachycephalosaurid (still-living in Late Cretaceous, though).
The First Pachycephalosaur?: Yaverlandia
- Remember Majungatholus, that pachycephalosaur from Madagascar which revealed to be the horn of a giant theropod? This was not an isolated case. Yaverlandia from Early Cretaceous England (Isle of Wight) was once mentioned as the “most ancient pachycephalosaur”: but its only remain, a tiny skull-dome with two small thickenings above (its complete scientific name, Yaverlandia bitholus, means "Yaverland's double-dome") has been reclassified as a bird-like theropod. "Majungatholus", in turn, was believed the only pachycephalosaur living in the Southern Hemisphere. 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. For example, Wannanosaurus from China was only two feet long (like a Microraptor) with a flat head that made it looking like a miniature Homalocephale, but, uniquely among known pachycephalosaurs, lacked any skull-protuberances: it is believed by some the actual most basal known pachycephalosaur, outside the proper Pachycephalosauridae but still in the Pachycephalosauria group. The almost-unknown Ferganocephale when was discovered in Middle Jurassic Central Asia in 2005 was also described as "the first pachycephalosaur" like Yaverlandia, but is way too fragmentary to be placed in any ornithischian group.
Sesquipedalian: Micropachycephalosaurus
- Still another piece of bone found in China in the 1970s has been attributed to another virtually-unknown pachycephalosaur from Late Cretaceous, which could get nonetheless a mention in the Guinness Book Of Records… as “the longest dinosaur name”, with 23 letters: Micropachycephalosaurus. It’s unlikely that someone will break this record with an even longer new dinosaur name… at least we hope! This sesquipedalian name was made combining the particle "micro" with "Pachycephalosaurus", meaning “small thick-headed lizard”. Indeed, it was actually one of the smallest dinos that ever lived, maybe only 50 cm/1.5 ft long, like an Anchiornis or an Epidexipteryx. But research made in the 2000s has shown it not to be a true pachycephalosaur, but more likely a very primitive late-surviving ceratopsian. Among the most popular dinosaurs the longest-named is today Carcharodontosaurus, with 19 letters (4 less than Micropachycephalosaurus). Since The New '10s have been invented a few other sesquipedalian dinosaur genus names, ex. Veterupristisaurus in 2011, Probrachylophosaurus in 2015, Crittendenceratops in 2018, Notatesseraeraptor in 2019, and Paralitherizinosaurus in 2022, all with 18 or more letters, but the "micropachy" still detains the record of "the biggest-named dinosaur" for now.
