Pachyrhinosaurus: The Mystery of the Horned Dinosaur

Janet Collins is a freelance writer in Sechelt, British Columbia.

Pachyrhinosaurus, one of the rarest and least understood horned
dinosaurs, lived during the second half of the Cretaceous period, the
last period in the 150–million-year Age of Dinosaurs. Pachyrhinosaurus
was different from other horned dinosaurs in a most striking way:
instead of the sweeping lances found on fossil Triceratops and
Centrosaurus faces, gnarly platforms of bone covered
Pachyrhinosaurus’s nose and eyebrows. These bony fossil shields gave
the dinosaur its name: Pachyrhinosaurus means “thick-nose reptile.”

This third book in the Royal Tyrrell Museum’s Discoveries in
Palaeontology series follows two separate stories. The first is of the
discovery of Pachyrhinosaurus fossils at Pipestone Creek in northwestern
Alberta. The second is a fictional story of a single Pachyrhinosaurus
herd and the events that led to its abrupt demise 76 million years ago.

Keiran’s account of the actual work of discovering, extracting, and
preparing the bones for the Tyrrell Museum’s Pachyrhinosaurus display
is accompanied by an impressive series of colour photographs that
document the process step by step. Additional information about such
things as horned dinosaurs, how fossils are formed, and how
palaeontologists go about their work adds depth. The fictional story of
the herd is equally informative, but presents the information in a way
that helps provide a background context for younger readers.

The number of different illustration types is a bit jarring at first,
but since each type is consistent with the relevant information
presented—photos for the factual story, line drawings/cartoons for the
information inserts, coloured illustrations of “living”
dinosaurs—the initial visual jumble begins to sort itself out, much
like the mystery of the Pachyrhinosaurus bones, which tell the story of
an amazing prehistoric creature. Recommended.