SCIENCE LAB SCENICS : SKULL CRACKERS

IN a competitive environment, a dinosaur that used its head. Head-butting was all the rage at the dinosaurs' reign.

During the Late Cretaceous period, several dinosaur groups evolved dangerous headgear, while others, such as birdlike theropods, appear to have avoided butting heads.

But a newly discovered species of cassowary-size raptor from Mexico reveals that some of these featherweights may have been more than capable of cracking skulls.

In a recent report in the journal. Diversity, a team of paleontologists described a set of thick bones on top of the dinosaur's braincase that fused together into a knobby bump.

The scientists proposed that the new dinosaur named XENOVENATOR [ or '' strange hunter '' ] espiinosai used the structure to ram into mating rivals.

'' Xenovenator reminds us that dinosaur behaviour was like to be more divorced and nuanced,'' said Hector Riveria-Sylva, a paleontologist at the Museo del Desierto en Saltillo, Mexico and lead author of the paper.

The Publishing continues to Part [ 2 ]. The World Students Society thanks Jack Tamisea.