Pachyrhinosaurus facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Pachyrhinosaurus Temporal range: 73.5–68.5Ma PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
P. perotorum mounted at the Perot Museum
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Clade:	Dinosauria
Order:	†Ornithischia
Family:	†Ceratopsidae
Subfamily:	†Centrosaurinae
Clade:	†Pachyrostra
Genus:	†Pachyrhinosaurus Sternberg, 1950
Type species
†Pachyrhinosaurus canadensis Sternberg, 1950
Species
†P. canadensis Sternberg, 1950 †P. lakustai Currie, Langston & Tanke, 2008 †P. perotorum Fiorillo & Tykoski, 2012

Pachyrhinosaurus was a large, plant-eating dinosaur that had a bony, spiked neck frill, four short legs, and a short tail. Pachyrhinosaurus was a short-frilled ceratopsian dinosaur that was 18 to 23 feet (5.5 to 7 m) long. Pachyrhinosaurus had many small horns on the middle of its frill.

Description

Size comparison of P. canadensis

Pachyrhinosaurus was 6–8 metres (19.7–26.2 ft) long and weighted around 3–4 tonnes (3.3–4.4 tons). They were herbivorous and possessed strong cheek teeth to help them chew tough, fibrous plants.

Restoration of P. lakustai

Instead of horns, their skulls bore massive, flattened bosses; a large boss over the nose and a smaller one over the eyes. A prominent pair of horns grew from the frill and extended upwards. The skull also bore several smaller horns or ornaments that varied between individuals and between species.

Various ornaments of the nasal boss have also been used to distinguish between different species of Pachyrhinosaurus.

Classification

The cladogram below shows the phylogenetic position of all currently known Pachyrhinosaurus species following Chiba et al. (2017):

Images for kids

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  P. canadensis skull cast, Geological Museum, Copenhagen

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  P. lakustai skull

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  P. perotorum holotype

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  Restoration of two P. perotorum

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  TMP 2002.76.1, which may be a specimen of Pachyrhinosaurus, Achelousaurus, or a new taxon, in Royal Tyrrell Museum

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  Skull differences between different growth stages of P. perotorum

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  A herd of P. perotorum resting next to contemporaneous paleofauna from the Prince Creek Formation

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  P. lakustai composite skeleton

See also

In Spanish: Pachyrhinosaurus para niños