Clash of the titans: Artist’s reconstruction of Triceratops in horn-to-horn combat. A new study provides evidence that some Triceratops suffered injuries as a result of these fights.
Credit: Lukas Panzarin, courtesy of Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology
But the horns and frills weren't solely for combat, he said. "I like to think of the headgear on Triceratops as a Swiss army knife. They probably used their skulls however they wanted, whether it was for combat, defence or display."
"Though display is an important function of the horns and frill of horned dinosaurs, it is not the only function. This specific combat-competition probably had an important selective factor as it does in modern herding horned and antlered animals," commented palaeontologist Robert Jones from the Australian Museum in Sydney.
"This is the first time that rigorous statistical analysis has been applied to this problem and it is now possible to relate injury patterns to specific behaviours," added Jones, who was not involved with the study.
