Pachycephalosaurus juveniles

[DinoLord]

Some new finds shed light on the Dracorex vs. Stygimoloch vs Pachycephalosaurus quandary.

[Pachyrhinosaurus]

That's interesting. I wonder if the ontogeny of pachycephalosaurus would suggest how (if) they used their head ornamentation.

[Halichoeres]

Thanks for sharing. I admit I don't completely understand the argument in this particular paper, which I guess means I need to read up on bone histology.

[stargatedalek]

What I think they're saying is that new Pachycephalosaurus juveniles have been found showing internal similarities to Dracorex further linking them as growth stages. Where I'm confused is that this evidence should(?) also remove Stygimoloch from the growth cycles, but they still mention its inclusion.

[John]

What the authors of the new study are saying is that new juvenile specimens confirm that the form named Dracorex hogwartsia is a juvenile growth stage of Pachycephalosaurus wyomingensis.They also agree with Horner's assertion that Stygimoloch spinifer is also a growth stage of Pachycephalosaurus.

[Halichoeres]

Thanks, John. I'm familiar with that general line of argument, so I guess I misspoke before. What I meant was I didn't understand how it followed from the morphology and histology of particular nodes on the specimens' parietals. So I understand the argument, but I'm still stuck on its premises. I just need to go ahead and read the descriptions; so far I've only gone through the abstract and conclusions.