And the First Dinosaur of the New Year Is...

(Pictured: Not Texacephale, but its relative Prenocephale)
Texacephale langstoni! This dinosaur was described yesterday from cranial remains found in the Big Bend region of Texas. It has been found to be a relatively pachycephalosaur from the late Campanian in the Cretaceous.

It's helped to rewrite pachycephalosaur taxonomy, too. Classification of this dinosaur has shown that pachycephalosaurs found in Asia, such as Homalocephale and Prenocephale form a monophyletic group. A monophyletic group is determined by whether or not the common ancestor of all members of the group would be considered of that group. For example, the common ancestor of an ostrich and a sparrow would have feathers, wings, and be warm-blooded, and therefore a bird. This means that Aves is a monophyletic group. Whereas the rhino's ancestor is related to horses, an elephant's to seacows, and a hippo's to pigs, which makes the group Pachydermata a non-monophyletic group.

And, surprisingly, analysis of its skull has revived the debate over whether or not pachycephalosaurs could have used their skulls in combat. And here I was, betting on the first dinosaur of 2010 to be yet another theropod.