Dino card No. 1695 of 2,015

Stegoceras

Say it: STEG-oh-SER-as

Name means: “horn roof”1

Ate: PlantsDome-headsLate Cretaceous

Stegoceras was a small dinosaur with a thick, bony dome on its head. It lived in North America during the Late Cretaceous period, about 77 to 74 million years ago. Scientists think it used its dome for head-butting or showing off to other Stegoceras.1

Lived

84 to 66 million years ago3

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Alberta, Canada, and New Mexico, USA1 2

Food

Plants1

Length

2 to 2.5 m1

Weight

10 kg to 40 kg1

Artist's life restoration of Stegoceras — How Stegoceras may have looked, by Bryan R. S. Moore, Mathew J. Roloson, Philip J. Currie, Michael J. Ryan, R. Timothy Patterson, Jordan C. Mallon. CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons. Scientists still argue about colours and details.

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

Stegoceras had a thick, smooth dome on top of its skull that grew bigger as it got older.1

The back of its skull had a shelf with small horns made from knobby bumps.1

It had a stiff tail and a broad pelvis, which might have held a big gut for digesting plants.1

Stegoceras was one of the first dome-headed dinosaurs ever discovered, known from skull domes found in 1898.1

Its teeth were small and serrated, good for shearing plants but not for chewing tough fibers.1

Scientists once thought some flat-headed pachycephalosaurs were different species, but they may just be young Stegoceras.1

Myth buster

Myth: Many people think Stegoceras used its dome only for head-butting like a battering ram.

Truth: Scientists debate whether the dome was used for head-butting, flank-butting, or just for display to attract mates.1

For dino experts

Scientific name: Stegoceras
Named by: Lambe 19023
Group: Dome-heads
Family / clade: Eupachycephalosauria3
Classification: Ornithischia > Pachycephalosauria3
Age of the rocks: 84 to 66 million years (Campanian to Maastrichtian)3
Rock formations: Judith River, Dinosaur Park, Fruitland3
Countries: USA, Canada3
Fossil records: 46 in the Paleobiology Database3
Also known as: Gravitholus, Hanssuessia, Ornatotholus (older names now counted as the same animal)3
Discovery: Stegoceras was named by paleontologist Lawrence Lambe in 1902, based on partial skull domes found in Alberta, Canada, in 1898 and 1901.1
Still debated: Scientists are still unsure whether the species Stegoceras novomexicanum from New Mexico really belongs to Stegoceras or to a different dinosaur.1

Where the facts come from

Stegoceras (en.wikipedia.org)
Stegoceras | Natural History Museum (nhm.ac.uk)
Stegoceras 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.