Stygimoloch is a genus of Pachycephalosaurids that was a herbivore in the prehistoric world.
The name "Stygimoloch" means "Moloch from the river Styx", where "Moloch" is a fearsome god and "the river Styx" is a mythical river that separates the living world and the underworld of Hades.
Discovery, geography, and chronology
This dinosaur was discovered in the Hell-Krick (North America) about two centuries ago. Today, scientists know that Stygimoloch lived in the Cretaceous period.
Description and sizes
Stygimoloch was a bipedal dinosaur that had amazing horns. They already had horns when they were growing up.
An adult was 3 meters in length, 1.5 meters in height, and about 80 kilograms in mass.
Environment and behavior
Some scientists suppose that Stygimoloch lived in small groups or flocks. This behavior helped to defend against dangerous predators of that time.
However, watching at Stygimoloch, horns attract our attention. These adaptation's functions were to scare off other predators, defend against them, and fight other Stygimoloch representatives as well.
Of course, there were other pretty interesting dinosaur species as well, like Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops.
Interesting hypothesis
In 2009 scientist Jack Horner assumed that Stygimoloch and another small dinosaur, Dracorex, were actually young Pachycephalosaurs. Today many scientists support this theory.
Stygimoloch was a really interesting dinosaur that had striking horns. Most likely it was a young Pachycephalosaurus, but that idea makes the whole process of the research more mysterious.
Special thanks to my friend for the English language advice.