The Gang of Five
The forum will have some maintenance done in the next couple of months. We have also made a decision concerning AI art in the art section.


Please see this post for more details.

Pachycephalosauria with claws?

Dilopho

  • Chomper
  • *
    • Posts: 96
    • View Profile
I think all know the scene where the Pachycephalosauria attack Cera. What I would like to know is why this is the only kind of herbivores that is shown with large claws.


Pangaea

  • Member+
  • Cera
  • *
    • Posts: 4434
  • Contemplator of Deep Time
    • View Profile
Probably just to make them look scarier and more dangerous. Real pachycephalosaurs probably didn't have these. Actually, no definitive fossils of pachycephalosaur hands have actually been discovered so far, but it is known that they had rather stubby arms, and most likely had fingers and claws to match (though their relatives, the heterodontosaurids, did have well developed arms and hands with prominent thumb claws).

Also, as I discussed once before, it is possible (and possibly not even unrealistic) that the three Pachycephalosaurus were after Cera for food. If this is what Don Bluth & co. had intended, then it seems reasonable that they would equip the pachys with predatory armaments such as sharp teeth and large claws.



Pronounced "pan-JEE-uh". Spelled with three A's. Represented by a Lystrosaurus.