Virtual smash-ups show teenaged dome-skulled dinos could knock heads

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Fossil evidence and computer simulations show which pachycephalosaurs could butt heads. Photo illustration by Chris Kriegner and Tetsuto Miyashita
Fossil evidence and computer simulations show which pachycephalosaurs could butt heads. Photo illustration by Chris Kriegner and Tetsuto Miyashita

After half a century of debate, a University of Alberta researcher has confirmed that dome-headed dinosaurs called pachycephalosaurs could collide with each other during courtship combat. Eric Snively, an Alberta Ingenuity fellow at the U of A, used computer software to smash the sheep-sized dinosaurs together in a virtual collision and results showed that their bony domes could emerge unscathed.


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