Please relocate if this is in the wrong section
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
source this site has an artist's rendering

The buttheads have foiled the experts again. A dragonlike dinosaur skull unearthed in South Dakota last year may force paleontologists to rewrite the history of a dinosaur group beloved to children - the buttheads, more technically known as pachycephalosaurs.

Boulder dinosaur-digger Bob Bakker has confirmed that the dinosaur, found by three amateurs, is a new species in a rare family with a handful of known North American relatives.

"I saw this head and had two thoughts," he said. "One, I'm completely wrong about everything I knew about buttheads, and two, that's really nifty. ... This animal shouldn't exist."

Mark Goodwin, a "pachy" family expert at the University of California, Berkeley, was less enthusiastic. "There's a lot of variation in the skull in this group," said Goodwin, viewing a photo of the new specimen.


Buttheads are so nicknamed, he said, because according to lore, they rammed, butted and pushed each other around with the armored tops of their heads.

But last year, Goodwin and a colleague published research showing that the dinosaurs' bone structure was such that a heavy blow to the head could have been fatal, and that helmet heads began disintegrating by adulthood.

Buttheads might have used their odd craniums for display, perhaps advertising their gender or species, Goodwin said.

Bakker said he's particularly surprised that the new skull has no dome, a characteristic of many other members of its family. But it does have an unusually long muzzle and spikes, and that's odd, because evolutionary experts believed the family acquired domes before spikes.

It could take years and more fossils to reconfigure the evolutionary history of the buttheads, he said, but he's fascinated by some possible implications.

"It could be that very, very late in the age of dinosaurs, this incredible little explosion of species diversity happened," Bakker suggested.

Goodwin called such speculation premature. "It's certainly worth scouring the beds where this was found to find more ... but changing the scientific view of evolution near the end of the age of dinosaurs? That's a little hyperbole."

The new butthead will be displayed at the children's Museum of Indianapolis.

```````````````````````````````````
other article There is a picture here but it's hard to see

(Indianapolis) - The Children's Museum of Indianapolis announced the discovery of a new species of dinosaur. Scientists recently discovered the dinosaur skull and then gave it to the museum.

The exciting acquisition brought out the child in everyone. Young and old in the room waited for the unveiling. The dinosaur skull remained under wraps covered with a black cloth.

"Under this wrap which we're about to take off is the dinosaur that shouldn't exist,” said Robert Bakker, world-renowned paleontologist. "This is the specimen that made us go back to the lab, take out our diagrams and our theories and throw them away. This is the most unexpected dinosaur discovery in the last 20 years."

It's a flat-headed pachycephalosaurus. That’s a creature scientists didn't know existed until a group of three dug it up in South Dakota in the summer of 2003.

"This is absolutely the first specimen of this species. We suspect there might me more - not as complete- in museum drawers unidentified,” said Bakker.

Scientists had identified others in the species with a round head, but they’d never seen a flat head. Through cat scans they know the creature had incredible vision and an amazing nose. Imagine a bloodhound with the eyesight of an eagle. It was about the height and weight of a pony with a flat head and spikes. The males would butt heads to prove superiority.

"When these animals butted heads they could also gore each other and rip each other's skin,” said Bakker.

All agree that it's an amazing find, but it doesn't yet have a name. One future paleontologist suggested “tomatosaurus."

The scientists donated the skull the Children's Museum because one of them had grown to love the museum when he lived in the area and would take his daughter. The skull is on display this week.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Different article by CNN

Not to burst your bubble but, judging by the artists rendering, there are dozens of two-legged dinosaurs that look almost exactly alike to these new ones.

"tomatosaurus".....yeah.

Mad is right.

Dragons seem to have horse shaped heads in mythology and legend illustations. They have long faces, leading to a nose, with a mouth under it...

...I'm rambleing but I know what I mean. It's why that serpant footage with the horse head shaped monsters head emerged.

I think its a pretty good find myself. And very interesting reading.
You guys are sometimes too fast to discredit something.
I think its amazing!

The Pachycephalosaur is not uncommon in my neck of the woods, however one with horns is definitely an interesting variation.

I couldn't get those images to load so I'm not sure what the new species looks like but here's a link to a nice set of images from a known one:


Pachycephalosaurus wyomingensis

Don't worry, I have no bubble to burst I guess they would be a different species like lions are a different species than tigers... I'm no dinosaur expert but I thought It was an interesting article and I was curious to what the dinosaur savvy on the forum would say about it...


The museum's link also has the same artist's drawing.

One thing I don't understand is why they keep the skull covered up?? Why pictures available are so few? Are they keeping it for the museum exhibit??

Since it's for a children's museum, the "future paleontologist" who suggested a tomatosaurus, might have been a child... Just a thought

it does look like a dragons head just a bit tho...

but yet this is a cool find

well no "dragon" has ever been found, so no one knows what a "dragon" skull would look like...

but a skull from this dinosaur could of been found years ago and started the whole dragon myth, but another example of the skull just took awhile to find...

assuming 'dragons' exist of course.

Looks like the head of a crocodile.

i highly doubt that they do, well not huge fire breathing flying ones atleast

You can assume anything. I assume that at one time dragons did exist.

This is just a dinosaur skull, found by a few, now happy, people. Just, a dinosaur and nothing special x-x

ya i know but from myth pictures of dragons dont u think the skull resembles a bit? sorta does to me anyways lol

that word butthead used in that article is a little childish tho...

from the website. how's that?

And i dont think it looks very draconic...the wingless dragons are usually four-leggers. not to mention that, as was stated before on one of the many dragonthreads, the origional dragons of Europe were doglike creatures, quite disgusting and i dont think very scaly.