{"id":36716,"date":"2011-07-03T15:43:29","date_gmt":"2011-07-03T15:43:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/the-head-butting-champ-of-the-animal-kingdom-discoblog\/"},"modified":"2011-07-03T15:43:29","modified_gmt":"2011-07-03T15:43:29","slug":"the-head-butting-champ-of-the-animal-kingdom-discoblog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/astronomy\/the-head-butting-champ-of-the-animal-kingdom-discoblog.php","title":{"rendered":"The Head-Butting Champ of the Animal Kingdom | Discoblog"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Stegoceras<\/em> “Steel Skull” validum<\/em><\/p>

It’s a question we’ve all asked ourselves, watching nature “red in tooth and claw”: Which animal, in all evolution’s bounty, would win in a head-butting fight?<\/p>

We don’t have to wonder anymore. In a new study<\/a>, researchers have rounded up the likely contenders for head-butting champ, living or dead, ranging from long-extinct domeheaded dinosaurs to modern-day musk oxen. Since some animals had an obvious advantage, what with being currently alive, the scientists settled for a virtual throwdown. They used CT scans to suss out the precise shape and size of each creature’s noggin, then relied on computer models<\/a> to see how they’d hold up when the animals went head to head.<\/p>

Two animals, giraffes and llamas, were knocked out of the competition right away—but they were never really in it. Both animals’ skulls would fracture in a truly aggressive tête-a-tête, the researchers said. Giraffes can, in fact, literally knock each other out<\/a> if they accidentally butt heads; the stress is simply too much.<\/p>

Frequent head-butters like the bighorn sheep<\/a> and musk ox<\/a> fared much better. The configuration of their skulls<\/a>—tough outer shell, spongy covering protecting the brain—let them emerge ...<\/p>

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Stegoceras “Steel Skull” validumIt’s a question we’ve all asked ourselves, watching nature “red in tooth and claw”: Which animal, in all evolution’s bounty, would win in a head-butting fight?We don’t have to wonder anymore. In a new study, researchers have rounded … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"limit_modified_date":"","last_modified_date":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-astronomy"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36716"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36716\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}