Superregnum: Eukaryota
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Superphylum: Deuterostomia
Phylum: Chordata
Cladus: Craniata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Infraphylum: Gnathostomata
Superclassis: Tetrapoda
Cladus: Reptiliomorpha
Cladus: Amniota
Classis: Reptilia
Cladus: Eureptilia
Cladus: Romeriida
Subclassis: Diapsida
Cladus: Sauria
Infraclassis: Archosauromorpha
Cladus: Crurotarsi
Divisio: Archosauria
Subsectio: Ornithodira
Subtaxon: Dinosauromorpha
Cladus: Dinosauria
Ordo: †Ornithischia
Cladus: †Genasauria
Cladus: †Neornithischia
Cladus: †Cerapoda
Cladus: †Marginocephalia
Cladus: †Pachycephalosauria
Familia: †Pachycephalosauridae
Genus: †Prenocephale
Species: †P. prenes
Name
Prenocephale Maryańska & Osmólska, 1974: 53
Type species: Prenocephale prenes [Maryańska & Osmólska, 1974: 53]
Etymology: "Gr. prenes = inclined, sloping, cephale = head" [Maryańska & Osmólska, 1974: 53]
References
Primary references
Maryańska, T. & Osmólska, H. 1974. Pachycephalosauria, a new suborder of ornithischian dinosaurs. In: Kielan-Jaworowska, Z. (ed.) Results of the Polish - Mongolian Palaeontological Expeditions. Part V. Palaeontologia Polonica 45–102. PDF Reference page.
Additional references
Sullivan, R.M. 2006. A taxonomic review of the Pachycephalosauridae (Dinosauria: Ornithischia). New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin 35: 347–365. UNM ResearchGate Reference page.
Links
Prenocephale – Taxon details on Fossilworks.
Prenocephale (meaning "sloping head"[1]) was a small pachycephalosaurid dinosaur genus from the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) of Mongolia and was similar in many ways to its close relative, Homalocephale, which may simply represent Prenocephale juveniles.
Description
Life restoration
Adult Prenocephale probably weighed around 130 kilograms (290 lb) and measured around 2.4 metres (8 ft) long. Unlike the flattened wedge-shaped skull of Homalocephale (a possible juvenile trait also potentially seen in early growth stages of Pachycephalosaurus), the head of Prenocephale was rounded and sloping. The dome had a row of small bony spikes and bumps. It lived in what is now the Nemegt Formation, in high upland forests, not the dry deserts of Mongolia today.[2]
Like some other pachycephalosaurs, Prenocephale is known only from skulls and a few other small bones. For this reason, reconstructions usually depict Prenocephale as sharing the basic body plan common to all of the other Pachycephalosauria: a stout body with a short, thick neck, short forelimbs and tall hind legs.
The head of Prenocephale was comparable to that of Stegoceras, albeit with closed supratemporal fenestrae. Also, the paired grooves above the supraorbitals/prefrontals (along with a posterior parietal that restricts the frontal dome) are absent in Prenocephale. This differentiates the species from Stegoceras, as such features are common in the latter. The North American Sphaerotholus was considered a synonym of Prenocephale by Sullivan (2003), but Longrich et al. (2010) and Schott and Evans (2016) kept it as a distinct genus based on cladistic analysis. Homalocephale has been viewed as a possible juvenile of Prenocephale due to the lack of a dome and its discovery in the same location and chronological interval, but new specimens of Prenocephale, including a juvenile specimen, suggest that Homalocephale, even if its holotype is a juvenile, is distinct.[3][4][5]
Classification
Front view of skull
Prenocephale is a member of the Pachycephalosauria, a large clade of herbivorous/omnivorous dinosaurs from the Late Cretaceous.
Robert Sullivan considered Foraminacephale, "Prenocephale" edmontonensis, and Sphaerotholus goodwini to form a clade with the Asian taxon P. prenes. He considered Tylocephale the sister taxon to the Prenocephale clade, while sinking Sphaerotholus buchholtzae as a subjective junior synonym of "P." edmontonensis.[6] They all possess a distinct row of nodes on the squamosal and parietal areas of the skull roof.
Below is a cladogram modified from Evans et al., 2013.[7]
| Pachycephalosauria |
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Paleobiology
Restoration of flank-butting behavior
As with most of its relatives, scientists do not yet know what these dinosaurs ate. However the premaxillary teeth and muzzle are not as wideset as in its relative Stegoceras, indicating different feeding preferences, possibly that Prenocephale was a more selective forager. Some scientists suggest that it may have been an omnivore, eating both plants and insects. However, most experts agree that Prenocephale (and the other pachycephalosaurs) browsed on leaves and fruit.
See also
Dinosaurs portal
Timeline of pachycephalosaur research
References
T. Maryanska and H. Osmolska. 1974. Pachycephalosauria, a new suborder of ornithischian dinosaurs. Palaeontologia Polonica 30:45-102.
"Prenocephale | Natural History Museum".
Palmer, D., ed. (1999). The Marshall Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animals. London: Marshall Editions. p. 137. ISBN 1-84028-152-9.
Longrich, N.R., Sankey, J. and Tanke, D., 2010. Texacephale langstoni, a new genus of pachycephalosaurid (Dinosauria: Ornithischia) from the upper Campanian Aguja Formation, southern Texas, USA. Cretaceous Research, . doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2009.12.002
Re: Sphaerotholus
David C. Evans, Shoji Hayashi, Kentaro Chiba, Mahito Watabe, Michael J. Ryan, Yuong-Nam Lee, Philip J. Currie, Khishigjav Tsogtbaatar, Rinchen Barsbold. (2017) Morphology and histology of new cranial specimens of Pachycephalosauridae (Dinosauria: Ornithischia) from the Nemegt Formation, Mongolia. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology.
Robert M. Sullivan (2003). "Revision of the dinosaur Stegoceras Lambe (Ornithischia, Pachycephalosauridae)". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 23 (1): 181–207. doi:10.1671/0272-4634(2003)23[181:ROTDSL]2.0.CO;2.
Evans, D. C.; Schott, R. K.; Larson, D. W.; Brown, C. M.; Ryan, M. J. (2013). "The oldest North American pachycephalosaurid and the hidden diversity of small-bodied ornithischian dinosaurs". Nature Communications. 4: 1828. Bibcode:2013NatCo...4.1828E. doi:10.1038/ncomms2749. PMID 23652016.
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