Tylocephale meaning (Swollen Head), is a genus of pachycephalosaurid dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Period. It was a herbivorous dinosaur estimated to have been about 1.4 metres (4.6 ft) in length and had the most tallest dome of any known pachycephalosaur. Tylocephale lived during the Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous, around 75 million years ago. It was discovered in the Khulsan region of Mongolia. The type species is T.gilmorei, described by Maryanska and Osmolska in 1974. Known only from the skull, the tallest among pachycephalosaurids, and parts of the lower jaw. It is about 1.5 meters long.
The dome of the skull incorporated the postorbital and quadrate and because the parieto-squamosal ridge is narrow, it is possible that the temporal window is absent. The dome and occiput are narrow and the postorbital bar and quadrate thinner than in the Prenocephale.
Discovery[]
Cretaceous-aged dinosaur fossil localities of Mongolia; Tylocephale fossils are known from the Khulsan site of area A (left).
During a joint Polish-Mongolian Expedition to the Khulsan outcrop of the Barun Goyot Formation in the Gobi Desert, a large skull and mandible of a pachycephalosaur (catalogue number ZPAL MgD-I/105) was unearthed in 1971. The rock layers of the Barun Goyot Formation derive from the Late Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous, in numerical terms around 75 to 73 million years old. This was one of a series of expeditions carried out between 1963 and 1971 that were spearheaded by Polish paleontologist Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska, which collected scores of well-preserved dinosaur skeletons. Several other Polish scientists joined the venture, including Teresa Maryańska and Halszka Osmólska, who were aided by local Mongolian aides. The skull was incomplete, missing much of the anterior portions and the rest of the bony dome. The mandible and skull were preserved in articulation, laying loose in weathered sandstone blocks from a former river channel. The specimen was one of several dinosaur individuals discovered at Khulsan during the 1970s, with material of the ankylosaurs Tarchia and Saichania, ceratopsid Breviceratops, and theropod Hulsanpes found in the locale. All of the fossils unearthed during this expedition were then transported to the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, where they were described in the following years.
The pachycephalosaur skull found at Khulsan was one of several collected during the Polish-Mongolian Expeditions, with other specimens in the nearby Nemegt Formation gathered in addition to Barun Goyot. The pachycephalosaur material from both formations was described in scientific literature in the journal Palaeontologica Polonica in 1974 by Teresa Maryańska and Halszka Osmólska. The skull found at Khulsan was designated the type specimen of a new genus and species, Tylocephale gilmorei. The genus name Tylocephale comes from the Greek words tyle ("swollen") and cephale ("head") and refers to the skull's prominent cranial dome. The species name honors American paleontologist Charles Gilmore, who wrote the first detailed description of a pachycephalosaur. The 1974 paper also dubbed two new pachycephalosaurs based on the fossils from Nemegt, Homalocephale and Prenocephale. All of these taxa were grouped in a new order Maryańska and Osmólska named Pachycephalosauria, which contained North American genera like Stegoceras and Pachycephalosaurus as well.
Description[]
Size comparison
Tylocephale was about 1.4 meters (4.6 feet) long, and had one of the highest peaking head domes of any Pachycephalosauridae.
Classification[]
Tylocephale looks very much alike, and was even related to Prenocephale
Paleoecology[]
Evidence suggests that Tylocephale originated in Asia, as with other pachycephalosaurids, then crossed over into North America. They then crossed back over to Asia, and it is likely that Tylocephale did as well.
Appearance in other media[]
Jurassic Park[]
- Tylocephale appeared in the video game Jurassic World Primal Ops.
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