RE: pachycephalosaurs

["Richard W. Travsky" <rtravsky@uwyo.edu>]

On Wed, 28 Apr 2004, Eric Martichuski wrote:
> >From :  frank bliss <frank@blissnet.com>
> >Why invoke the head butting hypothesis for the investment in bone mass. 
> >Heat transfer is an excellent reason.  Additionally, such "decorations" 
> >(excessive body growth)  are used widely in the modern animal kingdom as 
> >sexual markers.
> [...]
> It's a good thing the bone is solid too: if it were as blood-vessel rich as 
> you posit, the brain would likely cook itself.  All that heat carried into 
> the head, and then kept insulated from the surface by the thick, heat-laden 
> honeycomb above it...all of which is radiating in both directions, towards 
> the air and inwards toward the brain.  It'd be like putting a live coal in a 
> thermos bottle, or a fevered person under several thick quilts.  Efficient 
> heat-transfer requires _thinness_, like the sails and fins you see in other 
> dinos.

A live coal would be larger than the brain this creature likely
would've had. No doubt small size would not affect this, tho.

> [...]