Outline: a typical pachycephalosaur
Sphaerotholus
"ball dome"
Type species Sphaerotholus goodwini
- Lived
- 84 to 66 million years ago, Late Cretaceous
- Diet
- Herbivore
- Group
- Pachycephalosaurs, Pachycephalosauridae
- Found in
- United States and Canada
- Named by
- Williamson and Carr 2003
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
75 million years ago
Field notes
About Sphaerotholus
What it was like
Sphaerotholus was a dome-headed dinosaur with a high, rounded skull dome, ringed with small bony knobs at the back. Like its relatives it walked on two legs and ate plants.
Its world
It lived in the Late Cretaceous in what is now the western United States and Canada. Its fossils come from the Kirtland Formation of New Mexico, the Hell Creek Formation of Montana and the Dinosaur Park Formation of Alberta. Several species are known, from different times.
How it was found
Williamson and Carr named Sphaerotholus in 2003. Most finds are the thick skull domes, which survive much better than the rest of the skeleton.
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
Close relatives
Other members of Pachycephalosauridae
Sources: WikidataNamed in: T. E. Williamson and T. D. Carr. 2003. A new genus of derived pachycephalosaurian from western North America. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 22(4):779-801