Three-dimensional geometric morphometric analysis of the skull of Protoceratops andrewsi supports a socio-sexual signalling role for the ceratopsian frill.

Abstract excerpt

Socio-sexual selection is predicted to be an important driver of evolution, influencing speciation, extinction and adaptation. The fossil record provides a means of testing these predictions, but detecting its signature from morphological data alone is difficult. There are, nonetheless, some specific patterns of growth and variation which are expected of traits under socio-sexual selection. The distinctive...

Topics

• Animals
• Dinosaurs
• Fossils
• Phenotype
• Sex Characteristics
• Skull