Pachyrhinosaurus

dinosaurs · horned dinosaurs · prehistoric

Thick skull helmet. Pachyrhinosaurus had an extremely thick, hard dome on top of its head made of solid bone. Scientists think it used this super-strong skull to bump heads with other Pachyrhinosaurus, maybe to show who was strongest or to compete for food.

Alberta and Alaska home. These dinosaurs lived in what is now Canada and Alaska during the Late Cretaceous period, millions of years ago. Fossils of Pachyrhinosaurus have been found in places like the Dinosaur Provincial Park in Alberta.

Found by explorers. The first Pachyrhinosaurus fossils were discovered by a fossil hunter named Charles M. Sternberg in Alberta, Canada in 1946. Scientists didn't name it until 1950, and many more fossils weren't studied until the 1980s.

Part of a family. Pachyrhinosaurus was a centrosaurine ceratopsid, which means it belonged to a special group of horned dinosaurs. These dinosaurs often lived together in herds for protection and to find food.

Many fossils found. Over a dozen partial skulls and lots of other bones from different species of Pachyrhinosaurus have been discovered. All these finds help scientists understand how these dinosaurs lived and evolved.