Overview

• A Nature paper published September 17 names Zavacephale rinpoche from Mongolia’s Gobi Desert and pushes the pachycephalosaur record back by roughly 14–15 million years to about 108 million years ago.
• Discovered at the Khuren Dukh locality by Tsogtbaatar Chinzorig, the specimen is small in life at roughly 1 meter long and about 5.85 kilograms.
• Bone histology shows the individual was still growing despite a fully developed cranial dome, indicating socio-sexual structures matured before full body size.
• The fossil preserves rare anatomy for this group, including the first known pachycephalosaur hand, gastroliths, and an articulated tail with tendons, refining views of locomotion and digestion.
• CT scans and anatomy indicate an early, frontal-first dome construction with retained openings in the skull roof, clarifying the initial stages of dome assembly and early pachycephalosaur evolution.