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(pronounced pack-ee-RINE-oh-SAWR-us) Pachyrhinosaurus was a large, plant-eating dinosaur that had a bony, spiked neck frill, four short legs, and a short tail. Pachyrhinosaurus may or may not have had a snout horn - it did have a large bony bump on its nose (which may have had a horn growing on it)

ANATOMY
Pachyrhinosaurus was a short-frilled ceratopsian dinosaur that was 18 to 23 feet (5.5 to 7 m) long. Pachyrhinosaurus had many small horns on the middle of its frill.

WHEN PACHYRHINOSAURUS LIVED
Pachyrhinosaurus lived during lived during the late Cretaceous period, about 72 to 68 million years ago.

BEHAVIOR
Pachyrhinosaurus may have been a herding animal, like some other ceratopsians. Pachyrhinosaurus probably hatched from eggs, and the young may have been cared for by parents (but this is uncertain).

When threatened by predators, Pachyrhinosaurus may have charged into its enemy like a modern-day rhinoceros does. This would have been a very effective defense against predators.

INTELLIGENCE
Pachyrhinosaurus was a ceratopsian, whose intelligence (as measured by its relative brain to body weight, or EQ) was intermediate among the dinosaurs.

DIET
Pachyrhinosaurus probably ate cycads, palms, and other prehistoric plants with its tough, toothed beak. It could also chew well with its cheek teeth (like other ceratopsians, but unlike most other dinosaurs).

LOCOMOTION
Pachyrhinosaurus walked on four short legs; it may have been a relatively fast dinosaur, perhaps running at up to 20 mph (32 kph). Dinosaur speeds are estimated using their morphology (characteristics like leg length and estimated body mass) and fossilized trackways.

FOSSILS AND NAME
Fossils (12 partial skulls and many assorted bones) of Pachyrhinosaurus have been found in Alberta, Canada, and Alaska, USA. Pachyrhinosaurus was named by paleontologist Charles M. Sternberg in 1950 (from a fossil found in Canada in 1946).

CLASSIFICATION
Pachyrhinosaurus was a late ornithischian dinosaur, the order of bird-hipped, herbivorous dinosaurs. It was a member of the suborder Marginocephalia, and of the family of large, horned, frilled, herding herbivores, the ceratopsians. The ceratopsians were one of the last major groups of dinosaurs to evolve, and include Psittacosaurus, Leptoceratops, Styracosaurus, Montanoceratops, Chasmosaurus, Centrosaurus, Triceratops, Protoceratops, and others.

The type species is P. canadensis.

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