Re: Horner's Pachy Lumpin' - Your Thoughts?

[Saint Abyssal <saint_abyssal@yahoo.com>]

> From: Brian Baziak <baziak@gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: Horner's Pachy Lumpin' - Your Thoughts?
> To: saint_abyssal@yahoo.com
> Date: Thursday, January 7, 2010, 11:46 PM
> And the huge dome that grows isn't a
> sexual display feature?

1.) The dome has functional value outside of display (agonistic behavior).

2.) Stygimoloch, even assuming it was just a P. wyomingensis juvenile, already 
has a (laterally compressed) dome. It's not just a feature that develops upon 
reaching the full-grown "Pachycephalosaurus stage."

3.) Even if the dome was purely for show, it would still be curious that other 
apparent sexual display features already eroded away before it fully developed. 
I don't know of a single example of such in the animal kingdom where a taxon 
uses one type of sexual display in adolescence, but later loses it and 
replacing it with another at full physical maturity. But I guess it's possible 
even if unlikely.

~ Abyssal