Episode 272 is all about Tylocephale, the pachycephalosaur with the tallest dome.

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In this episode, we discuss:

News:

• Metabolism may have driven theropods to shrink while other groups were growing source
• Teylers Museum in the Netherlands has the paleo art exhibit “Dinomakers” source
• An Iguanodon tail has been found at cliffs near Brighstone on the Isle of Wight in the UK source
• A dad in Guernsey, UK, accidentally ordered a much larger-than-expected Carnotaurus sculpture for his son source
• The song “Dinosaurs in Love” by a 3 year-old girl has gone viral source

The dinosaur of the day: Tylocephale

• Pachycephalosaurid that lived in the Late Cretaceous in what is now Mongolia (Khulsan region, Barun Goyot Formation)
• Type species is Tylocephale gilmorei
• Genus name means “swollen head”
• Described in 1974 by Teresa Maryanska and Halszka Osmólska
• Found a partial, damaged skull with the jawbone (mandible) and some teeth
• Had the tallest dome of any pachycephalosaur (known so far)
• Dome is so high that you can see the dome when looking at the skull from the back (don’t see this in the domes of other pachycephalosaurids)
• Skull is very high and narrow, and short
• Had thick bones on the roof of the skull
• Bone in the back of the skull (squamosal) is sharp, and not swollen, and the dorsal portion (back) of the squamosal forms the thick margin of the skull in the back. The ventral portion (front) is thin
• The back of the squamosal on the roof of the skull has eight nodes
• Lots of debate over the dome (defense, attracting mates, etc., go into more detail about pachycephalosaurid domes in episode 93, Pachycephalosaurus)
• Probably had good vision and sense of smell
• Had large teeth, compared to other pachycephalosaurids
• Herbivorous
• Estimated to be 4.6 ft (1.4 m) long, so pretty small
• Closely related to Prenocephale (we cover in episode 98)
• Probably bipedal, with long legs and rigid tail
• Pachycephalosaurids started in Asia and migrated to North America, so Tylocephale probably migrated back to Asia

Fun Fact: Birds require between 15 and 20 times more food than a similar-sized reptile.

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