Outline: a typical pachycephalosaur
Zavacephale
"origin head"
Type species Zavacephale rinpoche
- Lived
- 120 to 101 million years ago, Early Cretaceous
- Diet
- Herbivore
- Group
- Pachycephalosaurs
- Found in
- Mongolia
- Named by
- Chinzorig et al. 2025
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
110 million years ago
Field notes
About Zavacephale
What it was like
Zavacephale was a small dome-headed dinosaur, a member of the pachycephalosaurs. Its skull already carried a thick, rounded dome, like those of its later and larger relatives.
It is the oldest pachycephalosaur known for certain and also the most complete, with a nearly whole skull and much of the skeleton, which shows how these animals looked early in their history.
Its world
It lived in the Early Cretaceous, between about 120 and 101 million years ago, in what is now Mongolia. Its fossil comes from the Khuren Dukh Formation, which has also produced Psittacosaurus, the iguanodont Altirhinus and the ostrich-like Harpymimus.
How it was found
Chinzorig and colleagues named Zavacephale rinpoche in 2025, from a single skeleton.
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
Close relatives
Other members of Pachycephalosauria
Sources: WikidataNamed in: T. Chinzorig, R. Takasaki, and J. Yoshida, R. T. Tucker, B. Buyantegsh, B. Mainbayar, K. Tsogtbaatar, L. E. Zanno. 2025. A domed pachycephalosaur from the early Cretaceous of Mongolia. Nature 646(8087):1138-1145