>>7340417>>7340421I think DS had to went all in with his effort in making the ceratopsian as fancy lizard color scheme gimmick but I'm a bit disappointed.
Ceratopsians are big herbivores, and these days no big herbivores have bright crazy colors. On the other hand the headress is so variable that scientists think it cannot possibly be used for self defense against predator (otherwise they will converge into a single, most pragmatic headress to combat the T-rex or other theropods). More likely the headress represent sexual selection, in which it make sense for it to have crazy patterns as well. Basing the color scheme on existing lizards prevent the unique color scheme on the headress
Protoceratops had a large bony frill that extended from the back of the head over the neck. Study of fossils aged from babies to adults revealed the adults to have disproportionately larger frills in relation to their size. The research, published in the journal Palaeontologia Electronica, shows that the frill was absent in juveniles and suddenly increased in size as the animals reached maturity suggesting that its function is linked to sexual selection.
This suggests the frill might have been used to attract suitable mates by showing off their best attributes or helping them assert the most dominant position in social interactions.
Dr David Hone, lecturer in Zoology from QMUL’s School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, said: “Palaeontologists have long suspected that many of the strange features we see in dinosaurs were linked to sexual display and social dominance but this is very hard to show. The growth pattern we see in Protoceratops matches that seen for signalling structures in numerous different living species and forms a coherent pattern from very young animals right through to large adults.”
