Fossil Analysis Reveals This Well-Armored Dinosaur Was Probably Sluggish And Deaf

A study of an 80 million-year-old Late Cretaceous Struthiosaurus skull has led to new discoveries. A new analysis shows that the dinosaur was slow in its movements and was mostly deafness.

A high-resolution 3D Scan of a partial braincase section of the creature's skull held the brain and other brain and sensory tissues. Researchers used micro-CT to create a detailed cross-section of an object.

The brain part of the dinosaur's brain that focuses on potential predator is small. The plates and spikes on the body of the S.austriacus make it seem like they discourage other animals from looking for a meal.

"In contrast to its North American relative Euoplocephalus, which had a tail club and a clear brain cast, the body armor of the Struthiosaurus may have been more important for protection."

The braincase scans show that the inner ear was formed in a way that suggests the dinosaur wasn't the most flexible of its kind.

The short lagena is the shortest lagena ever found in a dinosaur. The lagena is the part of the ear that is used for listening.

The team used a set of equations to calculate the range of frequencies the dinosaur could pick up. Human hearing is usually from 20 to 20,000hertz.

The researchers think that this species would have kept itself to itself because it was not able to hear very well.

The researchers wrote in their paper that they agree with an animal that adapted to a comparatively inactive lifestyle with limited social interactions.

The group of dinosaurs that S.austriacus belonged to were known as 'living fortresses', and individuals could grow up to 8 meters in body length, though the Struthiosaurus likely measured around 3 meters at most. The creature would've been a big eater.
The assessment of brain thermoregulation and neck mobility can be made using the form of the headcase, showing how this relatively small part of the fossil record can reveal a lot about the dinosaurs that they belonged to.

The researchers say that nodosaurid were less reliant on their sense of hearing, applied a less active style of self-defense, and occupied different ecological niches than ankylosaurid. The new findings of the brain of a sauropod seem to add to this.

The research has been published.