The plates on Stegosaurus and the fleshy, domed skulls on pachycephalosaurs could certainly have been for recognition, but not the kind of recognition cited in this article comparing it to teen fashion. Isn’t flashy recognition often a sign that says, “Don’t eat me because I am poisonous”? There may have been enough noxious secretions in those dinosaur decorations for a creature even as dumb as a tyrannosaurus to learn from one bite never to do it again.
Robert H. Keiter Johnson City, Tenn.
Could the dinosaurs’ plates be for camouflage? They might help them to blend into flora or a rocky landscape.
Lisa A. McLoughlin Northfield, Mass.
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