Prickly Pachyrhinosaurus Playing In The Snow

As Winter and eventually Christmas head in, at school today, I’ve doodled this cute Pachyrhinosaurus playing with a snowball in his Arctic home (which was still humid compared to now). Large animals like cattle and rhinos in captivity really love playing with balls and snow in the winter. I’ll actually be drawing this northern ceratopsian in detail for the Palaeodigon soon. Those prickly quills are based on a marvellous fossil of a Psittacosaurus with bristles on its tail, though a primitive ceratopsian. Although we haven’t found other evidence beyond that yet, imagine if some later ceratopsians repurposed those bristles into keratinised quills like these, which I can imagine being used for extra defence (especially for those with less weaponised frills like the pachyrhinosaur’s), or some cool rattling communication or body language, both like a porcupine’s today. Rewatching Prehistoric Planet has really now got in the mood to draw pachyrhinosaurs.