Once-in-a-lifetime discovery reveals dome-headed dinosaur headbutted to attract mates

Interesting Engineering ^ | September 18, 2025 | Mrigakshi Dixit

[GingisK]

They weren't real dinos, they were and artist's renderings. They are assigning behavioral attributes without basis in fact. That is scientific make-believe. The same sort of media magic that causes liberals to kill conservatives.

Must everything in our society be based upon fantasy?

[dljordan]

Hey babe! Watch this!

[gleeaikin]

Of course they were not real dinosaurs. However, they were the most realistic rendering possible using available skeletons and knowledge of how muscles attach to bones, and possible colorings based on current evolutionary observations. Same kind of detailing used to do a facial reconstruction from the skull of an unknown murder victim to try to find the victims family or someone who might recognize the person. Definitely not a cartoon but an attempt at an accurate rendering based on scientific understandings.

[GingisK]

You seem to be missing the point. It is NOT the animation with which I take issue. It is the arbitrary assignment of behavior that bothers me.

It is just like digging up some 4000 year old bones of an Egyptian, and saying, "Look! This guy insisted that he be allowed to smash his peas and spread them on bread before he would eat them".

Completely made up behavior.

[Max in Utah]

Pachycephalosaurs were plant-eating dinosaurs.

The image of the skull doesn't seem right-- the teeth are more like those of a carnivore and aren't suited for browsing vegetation. Perhaps it was an omnivore that specialized in scavenging carcasses?