Sinocephale
Sinocephale was a small, dome-headed dinosaur that lived in what is now China. It walked on two legs and used its thick, bony skull to head-butt rivals. Only a piece of its skull has been found, but scientists think it was a plant-eater.14
When did it live?
Fun facts
Sinocephale is the first pachycephalosaurid dinosaur ever found outside of North America.2
Its skull had a heart-shaped outline when viewed from above, because the back edge was deeply curved inward.1
The only known fossil is a piece of the skull roof, called a parietal bone. The original was lost, but plaster casts were found and used for study.12
Sinocephale was originally named as a species of Troodon in 1953, then moved to Stegoceras, and finally got its own genus in 2021.1
It lived during the Late Cretaceous, about 83 to 66 million years ago, in a floodplain environment with rivers.41
Sinocephale is related to famous dome-headed dinosaurs like Pachycephalosaurus and Prenocephale.1
Most asked questions about Sinocephale
?How big was Sinocephale?
Nobody knows for sure, because only a piece of the skull roof has been found. The dome was about 7.5 centimetres (3 inches) thick, but the full body size is unknown.13
?Did Sinocephale have a heart-shaped skull?
Yes. The back edge of its skull was deeply curved inward, giving the skull a heart-shaped outline when seen from above.1
?When did Sinocephale live?
Sinocephale lived during the Late Cretaceous, about 83 to 66 million years ago, in what is now Inner Mongolia, China.1
?What did Sinocephale eat?
Scientists think it was a plant-eater, based on its dome-headed dinosaur relatives, though no teeth or jaws have been found.1
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Myth buster
Myth: Some people think Sinocephale was a theropod dinosaur like Troodon.
Truth: Sinocephale is actually a pachycephalosaur, a dome-headed plant-eater, not a meat-eating theropod.1
For dino experts
- Scientific name
- Sinocephale
- Named by
- Evans et al. 20214
- Group
- Dome-heads
- Family / clade
- Pachycephalosauridae4
- Classification
- Ornithischia > Pachycephalosauria4
- Age of the rocks
- 84 to 66 million years (Campanian / Maastrichtian)4
- Rock formations
- Ulansuhai4
- Countries
- China4
- Fossil records
- 1 in the Paleobiology Database4
- Discovery
- The fossil was found in 1930 or 1931 by Swedish paleontologists in Inner Mongolia. It was named Troodon bexelli by Birger Bohlin in 1953, but later renamed Sinocephale bexelli in 2021.1
- Still debated
- Scientists are not sure exactly how old the Ulansuhai Formation is, so the age of Sinocephale is still debated.1
Where the facts come from
- Sinocephale (en.wikipedia.org)
- Description and revised diagnosis of Asia’s first recorded pachycephalosaurid, Sinocephale bexelli gen. nov., from the Upper Cretaceous of Inner Mongolia, China (web.archive.org)
- Description and revised diagnosis of Asia’s first recorded pachycephalosaurid, Sinocephale bexelli gen. nov., from the Upper Cretaceous of Inner Mongolia, China (cdnsciencepub.com)
- Sinocephale in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.
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Stegoceras
Prenocephale
Sphaerotholus
Foraminacephale
Brontotholus
Triceratops
Velociraptor
Spinosaurus
Ankylosaurus
Parasaurolophus