The Pachycephalosaurus, a dinosaur best known for it’s hard, dome-shaped skull, may have kickboxed like a kangaroo rather than butting its head like a ram or a bighorn sheep as was previously thought.
It has long been thought that pachycephalosaurs used their large heads to ram into their rivals, but new research presented at the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology conference in Toronto on Nov. 2 suggests that the dinosaurs moved more like kangaroos.
Researchers made a virtual 3D model of a Pachycephalosaurus skeleton, and analyzed the back vertebrae of the dinosaur, according to Live Science. The vertebrae had ruffled ends, similar to a kangaroo — not animals that butt heads like bighorn sheep, deer or musk ox.
“The skeleton in our study supports that they used their tail as a prop like kangaroos do, but not that they ran at each other and bashed their heads together like bighorn sheep,” paleontologist Cary Woodruff, who is leading the research, told Live Science.
Kangaroos “kickbox” by putting their weight on their tail and kicking with their two legs. The vertebrae suggest that pachycephalosaurs may have done the same.
“The possibility exists that they could have engaged in their own form of a kickboxing-like behavior,” Woodruff said.
The research has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal, but the study could have a big impact in the world of paleontology.