Overview
- An international team including Okayama University of Science reported the find in Nature on September 17.
- The fossil, uncovered in 2019 in Mongolia’s Gobi Desert, comes from Lower Cretaceous strata and preserves a rare near-complete skeleton.
- Researchers designated the specimen a new species, naming it Zavacephale rinpoche.
- The animal is estimated at about 1 meter in length and roughly 6 kilograms, and the individual is assessed as young.
- The skull shows a fully developed dome typical of the group, providing an early data point for cranial evolution and hinting that head-butting may have started in juvenile stages.