Evidence of combat in triceratops.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The horns and frill of Triceratops and other ceratopsids (horned dinosaurs) are interpreted variously as display structures or as weapons against conspecifics and predators. Lesions (in the form of periosteal reactive bone, healing fractures, and alleged punctures) on Triceratops skulls have been used as anecdotal support of intraspecific combat similar to that in modern horned and antlered animals. If ceratopsids with different cranial morphologies used their horns in such combat, this should be reflected in the rates of lesion occurrence across the skull.

Methodology/principal findings

We used a G-test of independence to compare incidence rates of lesions in Triceratops (which possesses two large brow horns and a smaller nasal horn) and the related ceratopsid Ce

SUBMITTER: Farke AA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2617760 | biostudies-literature | 2009

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature