Sinocephale (meaning "Chinese head") is a genus of pachycephalosaurid dinosaur that lived in Inner Mongolia, China during the Cretaceous period.

Scant material makes for limited knowledge of its life appearance, but it is distinguished by an embayment on the back of the domed skull, which would give it a heart shape as seen from above.

It is potentially the oldest known pachycephalosaurid and falls within the subset of the family called Pachycephalosaurinae, related to animals such as Pachycephalosaurus and Prenocephale.

The geologic context of the species has been historically unclear but it is currently thought to originate in rocks belonging to the Ulansuhai Formation.

[4] Bohlin's species was largely ignored in the years subsequent to its original naming,[1] only occasionally invoked to mention its significance as the first known Asian pachycephalosaur.

[3] Robert M. Sullivan would agree with this sentiment in later papers, noting it likely belonged to Asian genus like Prenocephale but that it should be considered an undiagnostic nomen dubium.

[7][8] In her chapter on pachycephalosaurs in the 1990 book The Dinosauria, Teresa Maryańska offered an alternative opinion, noting points of anatomical distinctiveness compared to other pachycephalosaurids despite the scant nature of its material.

They aimed to provide a more in-depth description than the 1953 study, investigating the ornamentation and age of the animal and evaluating its phylogenetic place in the Pachycephalosauridae in light of the decades of discoveries since its naming.

[1] Bohlin thought that the species "is at least not older than the North American forms", referring to taxa such as Stegoceras, though noted the geology was likely not deposited at the exact same time.

[10] Sues and Galton considered the stratigraphic placement of the Tsondolien-Khuduk locality uncertain, but noted it may be older than Djadochta rather than equivalent.

Its parietal anatomy is overall an intermediate half-step between the straight morphology seen in Stegoceras and kin as opposed to more derived genera like Sphaerotholus with rounded shapes.

The phylogenetic tree of Evans et al. (2021) is reproduced below:[1] Psittacosaurus mongoliensis Yinlong downsi Wannanosaurus yansiensis Stegoceras novomexicanum Stegoceras validum Colepiocephale lambei Hanssuesia sternbergi Goyocephale lattimorei Homalocephale calathocercos Tylocephale gilmorei Foraminacephale brevis Amtocephale gobiensis Acrotholus audeti Prenocephale prenes Sinocephale bexelli Sphaerotholus goodwini Sphaerotholus buchholtzae Sphaerotholus edmontonensis Alaskacephale gangloffi Pachycephalosaurus wyomingensis Stygimoloch spinifer