Superfamily
Valid Extinct

Pachycephalosauroidea

Zhao 1983

Pachycephalosauria is a clade of ornithischian dinosaurs. Along with Ceratopsia, it makes up the clade Marginocephalia. Pachycephalosaurs lived exclusively in the Northern Hemisphere during the Cretaceous period, with all members being found in North America and Asia. They were all bipedal, herbivorous/omnivorous animals with thick skulls. Skulls can be domed, flat, or wedge-shaped depending on the species, and are all heavily ossified. The domes were often surrounded by nodes and/or spikes. Partial skeletons have been found of several pachycephalosaur species, but to date no complete skeletons have been discovered. Often isolated skull fragments are the only bones that are found.

Temporal range
PBDB occurrences
0
Group
Dinosaures
Herbivore Ground dwelling, gregarious Terrestrial
Pachycephalosauroidea
click to enlarge
Montage of four pachycephalosaurs. Clockwise from top left: Stegoceras, Prenocephale, Pachycephalosaurus and Homalocephale. These files are already on Commons with their respective licenses. This montage was made for the article Pachycephalosauria on Wikipedia. File:Stegoceras mount.jpg File:Dinosauria - Prenocephale.jpg File:Fossil Pachycephalosaurus.jpg File:Homalocephale skull.jpg © PaleoNeolitic (montage creator) Lewis Kelly Tylwyth Eldar Momotarou2012 FunkMonk · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia
PBDB Wikipedia
Classification
Dinosauria Unranked clade
Ornithischia Unranked clade
Neornithischia Unranked clade
Pyrodontia Unranked clade
Cerapoda Unranked clade
Marginocephalia Unranked clade
Pachycephalosauria Suborder
Pachycephalosauroidea Superfamily
Images 1
Bibliography
Original description
X. Zhao. 1983. Phylogeny and evolutionary stages of Dinosauria. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 28(1-2):295-306