Foraminacephale

Foraminacephale is a genus of small pachycephalosaurid dinosaur discovered in the fossil-rich Dinosaur Park Formation of Alberta, Canada. Originally described in the twentieth century as a species of Stegoceras, detailed taxonomic revisions in 2017 revealed distinct cranial characteristics justifying its own genus. Estimated at around one and a half to two metres long, it walked exclusively on its hind legs. Its frontoparietal skull dome was covered in numerous distinct pits, or foramina, which carried blood vessels that likely nourished a keratinous sheath over the bone in life. These dense bone domes are the primary fossils preserved, as the delicate skeletons of small ornithischians rarely survived fossilisation. Foraminacephale lived in coastal floodplains alongside giant hadrosaurs and ceratopsids, browsing on low ferns, shrubs, and seeds.

Its skull dome is punctured by numerous small pits and vascular channels called foramina.

Where and when

Foraminacephale lived in the Late Cretaceous, from 76.5 to 75 million years ago (Campanian age). Its remains come from Canada, in the Dinosaur Park Formation.

The numbers

Length 1.8 m (estimates run from 1.5 to 2 m). Mass about 28 kg. Hip height about 0.6 m. That is 1.1 human-lengths, or 0.16 of a double-decker bus. These are estimates from partial skeleton; fields marked estimated by the site are length, mass, hip height.

Compare Foraminacephale with a bus Place on the timeline