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Pachyrhinosaurus was a large, plant-eating dinosaur that had a bony, spiked neck frill, four short legs, and a short tail.

Pachyrhinosaur1

Description[]

It may or may not have had a snout horn - it did have a large bony bump on its nose (which may have had a horn growing on it).Pachyrhinosaurus was a short-frilled ceratopsian dinosaur that was 26 feet (8 m) long. It had many small horns on the middle of its frill.Pachyrhinosaurus lived during the late Cretaceous period, about 72 to 68 million years ago.Pachyrhinosaurus may have been a herding animal, like some other ceratopsians. Pachyrhinosaurus probably hatched from eggs, and the young may have been cared for by parents (but this is uncertain).When threatened by predators, Pachyrhinosaurus may have charged into its enemy like a modern-day rhinoceros does. This would have been a very effective defense against predators.Pachyrhinosaurus was a ceratopsian, whose intelligence (as measured by its relative brain to body weight, or EQ) was intermediate among the dinosaurs.Pachyrhinosaurus probably ate cycads, palms, and other prehistoric plants with its tough, toothed beak. It could also chew well with its cheek teeth (like other ceratopsians, but unlike most other dinosaurs). Pachyrhinosaurus walked on four short legs; it may have been a relatively fast dinosaur, perhaps running at up to 20 mph (32 kph). Dinosaur speeds are estimated using their morphology (characteristics like leg length and estimated body mass) and fossilized trackways.Fossils (12 partial skulls and many assorted bones) of Pachyrhinosaurus have been found in Alberta, Canada, and Alaska, USA. Pachyrhinosaurus was named by paleontologist Charles M. Sternberg in 1950 (from a fossil found in Canada in 1946).

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