Dino card No. 0815 of 2,027

Homalocephale

Say it: HOME-ah-loh-KEFF-ah-lee

Name means: “level head”1

Ate: PlantsDome-headsLate Cretaceous

Homalocephale was a small dinosaur with a flat, bony head. It lived in what is now Mongolia during the Late Cretaceous period. This plant-eater used its strong legs to walk on two feet.1 4

Lived

72 to 66 million years ago4

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Mongolia1 4

Food

Plants1 2

Length

1.5 m1

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

as long as 3 house cats nose to tailas long as 8 bananas end to end

How big was Homalocephale compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Homalocephale had a flat skull roof, unlike many other dome-headed dinosaurs that had a rounded dome.2

Its tail was wrapped in a basket-like network of tendons, which is why its species name calathocercos means 'basket tail'.2

Homalocephale is known from a nearly complete skeleton, including a full skull and most of the body.1

It lived about 72 to 68 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous.1

This dinosaur was about 1.5 metres (5 feet) long, about the size of a large dog.1

Homalocephale had strong legs and could walk on two feet, but it was not a fast runner.2

AI-made picture of Homalocephale — An AI-made picture of how Homalocephale might have looked, made by a computer from what scientists know. It is a guess: the real animal may have looked different, and nobody knows its true colours.

you asked

Most asked questions about Homalocephale

?How big was Homalocephale?

About 1.8 metres (5.9 feet) long, roughly the size of a large dog.3 1

?What did Homalocephale eat?

It was probably an omnivore, eating both plants and maybe small animals.3

?Did Homalocephale have a dome on its head?

No, unlike many other pachycephalosaurs, Homalocephale had a flat, wedge-shaped skull roof instead of a rounded dome.3 1

?When did Homalocephale live?

It lived during the Late Cretaceous period, about 72 to 68 million years ago.1 3

?Could Homalocephale run fast?

It had rather long legs and a fast-moving gait, so it could probably run quickly.3

?Is Homalocephale a dinosaur?

Yes, it is a pachycephalosaurid dinosaur.1 3

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Homalocephale
Named by: Maryańska and Osmólska 19744
Group: Dome-heads
Family / clade: Eupachycephalosauria4
Classification: Ornithischia > Pachycephalosauria4
Age of the rocks: 72 to 66 million years (Maastrichtian)4
Rock formations: Nemegt4
Countries: Mongolia4
Fossil records: 2 in the Paleobiology Database4
Discovery: Homalocephale was named by Polish paleontologists Teresa Maryańska and Halszka Osmólska in 1974. The fossils were found during Polish-Mongolian expeditions to the Gobi Desert in the 1960s and 1970s.4 2
Still debated: Scientists are not sure if the flat head of Homalocephale was used for head-butting or for display, like a peacock's tail.2

Where the facts come from

Homalocephale | Natural History Museum (nhm.ac.uk)
PACHYCEPHALOSAURlA, A NEW SUBORDER OF ORNITHISCHIAN DINOSAURS (palaeontologia.pan.pl)
Homalocephale (Wikipedia) (Wikipedia)
Homalocephale in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

Every fact on this page has a number that points to its source. If we got something wrong, sorry, we are dino fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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