| Acrotholus | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||
| Name | Acrotholus | |||
| Class | Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria, Ornithischia, Pachycephalosauridae | |||
| Name Translation | High Dome | |||
| Period | Santonian (Cretaceous) | |||
| Location | Canada | |||
| Diet | Herbivore | |||
| Size | 1.8 meters long | |||
Acrotholus (Greek for "high dome"); »pronounced ACK-roe-THO-luss« lived in Woodlands of North America. They lived about 85 million years ago and ate plants. They announced that Acrotholus is the earliest bone-headed dinosaur to be discovered in North America, predating the previous record-holder by five million years, and it's one of the earliest pachycephalosaurs yet identified—possibly only recently evolved from its ornithopod ancestors.
Aside from its place at the base of the pachycephalosaur family tree, Acrotholus is also important because it points to a previously unappreciated diversity among small, herbivorous, Cretaceous dinosaurs. Even at this early date, bone-headed dinosaurs seem to have been widely diverse, albeit sharing one important characteristic: their unusually thick and rounded skulls, which presumably permitted males to butt heads at high speed for the right to mate with females.
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