Related Pictures: Triceratops Bones May Bely Battles.
Triceratops used their horns to get their point across—literally—a new study finds.
Dozens of dinosaur species had bizarre structures on their heads, ranging from horns to crests to lumps. But what these features were for has been a subject of much debate. (See bizarre dinosaurs.)
One popular theory has been that they were used for display.
Just as male elk, deer, and moose use their antlers to show off to females, paleontologists argue that these head features in dinosaurs were used for attraction. Any male that can grow huge antlers and survive with that weight on its head is likely to have really good genes, the theory states.
Whether or not display is a factor, modern elk also use their antlers to duel with one another, sometimes inflicting grievous wounds.
The new paper suggests that Triceratops, which lived during the Cretaceous period (144 million to 65 million years ago), may not have been all that different, potentially using their horns for the dual purposes of fighting and display as well (prehistoric time line).
While the new paper does not confirm or deny the concept of display, it does present considerable evidence that fighting existed.
"Head-to-head combat in modern animals has been used as evidence that horned dinosaurs did the same thing. My colleagues and I wondered if any actual physical evidence for this existed in the fossil record, commented lead study author Andrew Farke of the Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology in Claremont, California.
Armed and Dangerous
Triceratops had three horns on its head: Two long ones on its brow and one smaller horn on its nose. Along the back of the head was a bony frill resembling a shield, which protected the neck.
Farke and his colleagues theorized that if Triceratops used the horns for dueling purposes, evidence of past injuries would be found on the skulls.
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