Re: Bone heads

[Rich Travsky <RTRAVSKY@UWYO.EDU>]

On Fri, 14 Jul 1995, James Shields wrote:
> >I also believe that head 
> >butting was common practice amoungst Pachycephalosaurids, but not as 
> >dramatic as the head smashing displayed by big horn sheep.
> 
> I don't know too much about the skeleton of a big-horn, but if you look at
> the skeleton of a pachycephalosaurid, it's not very hard to see that it
> designed for head-on impacts. A sort of dinosaurian crash test dummy!
> 
> Now, lets be honest, what they were impacting is very much speculation and
> opinion...
Hmmm. Do the skulls of pachycephalosaurids exhibit any signs of impacts?
Fractures, cracking, etc.? I don't think crashing through the bushes
would leave any traces, whereas P. head to P. head ought to make a
lasting impression of some kind.

(Would you have to cat scan the skull?)

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