By Sid Perkins
Comparing the pattern and prevalence of lesions on the skulls of dinosaurs in the Triceratops genus with those of a short-horned cousin strongly suggests that Triceratops used their horns in head-to-head combat among themselves.
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With a broad frill on the back of its skull and its trademark three horns — a small, rhino-style horn on the nose and a long one pointing forward from above each eyebrow — Triceratops are among the dinosaur era’s most recognizable creatures. Everyone from paleontologists to filmmakers and children, imaginative folks all, has envisioned the behemoth using its horns to defend itself against predators such as Tyrannosaurus rex. Now, research reported online January 27 in PLoS ONE hints that Triceratops used their brow horns to joust with each other.
Andy Farke, a vertebrate paleontologist at the Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology in Claremont, Calif., and his colleagues reached this conclusion by analyzing the pattern and prevalence of lesions on various fossilized skull bones of adult Triceratops. Not all of the skulls were complete, so some bones showed up more often than others, he notes. The team counted lesions thought to represent the healing of fractures and superficial traumas, such as gouges and scrapes.