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Centrosaurus is the eponymous member of the centrosaurine horned-dinosaurs. It lived around 75 million years ago, in what is today Alberta, Canada. At 5 m (16 feet) long and weighing around 2 tonnes, it’s not the largest of the horned dinosaurs, but you probably wouldn’t want one in your living room. These roughly rhino-sized animals used their beaks and tooth-batteries of slicing teeth to tear and shred even the toughest plant material.
Centrosaurus has been found buried in large herds. While the large nose horn was probably usable against local tyrannosaurs like Gorgosaurus and Daspletosaurus in a pinch, analysis of how much horn size and shape varies from species to species suggests the primary purpose would have been signaling to other members of their own species. Evidence of healed skull injuries consistent with damage from others’ horns suggests they jousted or pushed and shoved when competing for mates or resources.
