Homalocephale Pronunciation

Fun Facts

• ✓Unlike every other pachycephalosaur in its family, Homalocephale had a completely flat skull top rather than a dome, which is exactly what its name means in Greek: flat head.
• ✓Homalocephale had an unusually wide pelvis for a dinosaur of its size, leading some scientists in the 1970s to speculate it might have given birth to live young rather than laying eggs, though this idea remains unproven.
• ✓For decades, scientists debated whether Homalocephale was actually just a juvenile version of the dome-headed Prenocephale, since young pachycephalosaurs start out flat-headed before their domes grow. Studies of bone texture eventually confirmed they were two separate species.
• ✓Homalocephale lived alongside some of the most famous dinosaurs of the Nemegt Formation, including the giant theropod Tarbosaurus and the long-necked Nemegtosaurus, in a lush river floodplain environment in what is now the Gobi Desert.
• ✓The species name calathocercos comes from Greek words meaning basket-tailed, referring to the unusual interlocking bony rods in its tail that made the tail stiff, possibly used for balance or display.