Foraminacephale

Foraminacephale (meaning "foramina head") is a genus of pachycephalosaurid dinosaur from Late Cretaceous (Campanian stage) deposits of Canada.

[1] Unlike Stegoceras, Hanssuesia, and Colepiocephale, the parietal bone of Foraminacephale (which constitutes the back part of the dome) projects backwards and downwards over the base of the skull.

[1] The holotype of Foraminacephale is CMN 1423, a nearly complete frontoparietal dome collected in Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta in 1902 and reported on during the same year.

Another specimen from the Horseshoe Canyon Formation formerly assigned to Foraminacephale, CMN 11316, was re-identified as a small, juvenile indeterminate pachycephalosaurine.

[1] CMN 1423 was first assigned to a new species of Stegoceras by Lawrence Lambe in 1918;[8] there was considerable debate over whether "S." brevis represented a truly distinct animal or simply a morph, perhaps the female, of S.

[1] Wannanosaurus yanshiensis Hanssuesia sternbergi Colepiocephale lambei Stegoceras validum Stegoceras novomexicanum Goyocephale lattimorei Homalocephale calathocercos Tylocephale gilmorei Foraminacephale brevis Amtocephale gobienses Prenocephale prenes Acrotholus audeti Pachycephalosaurus wyomingensis Alaskacephale gonglofi Dracorex hogwartsia Stygimoloch spinifer Sphaerotholus goodwini Sphaerotholus buchholtzae The topology of this phylogenetic tree is not very stable, likely due to the incompleteness of most pachycephalosaur specimens.

Because of a lack of understanding of pachycephalosaur ontogeny, various authors have assigned this material to anywhere from a single species, Stegoceras validum, to four different genera.

Life restoration of an adult