Ceratopsians vs other horned herbivores

[theropod]

I think the honing behaviour is genuinely supposed to sharpen the horn. Just like cats hone their claws. That kind of behaviour doesn’t require an animal to actually have any cognitive understanding of what it is doing, of course, it’s enough if there is a selective advantage for animals that tend to rub their horn on stuff a lot.

As for the curved shape, I also think that some degree of curvature might actually be helpful for use as a weapon, as long as the tips remain reasonably pointed (which given the shape and ontogeny of the horn cores seems likely). The natural motion of the horns when impacting an opponent would also be in an arc (head and neck rotation), after all, so it makes sense for the horns to be curved to follow that arc.

[Verdugo]

Oct 20, 2019 0:24:34 GMT 5 theropod said:

I think the honing behaviour is genuinely supposed to sharpen the horn. Just like cats hone their claws. That kind of behaviour doesn’t require an animal to actually have any cognitive understanding of what it is doing, of course, it’s enough if there is a selective advantage for animals that tend to rub their horn on stuff a lot.

Perhaps, like i said, i'm not sure why these animals rub their horns but it may in a way, make the horn 'sharper'. But my point still stands, these animals do not not have the capacity to understand how to sharpen their horns properly like the way humans sharpen their weapons, they merely just rub their horns onto something and their horns may accidentally become somewhat sharper. The video i posted is one of the better 'horn sharpening' videos that i could find, if you look at other 'horn sharpening' videos, these animals just rub their horns onto random objects and i can't really see how that would make their horns that much sharper

www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI0lmRkq1OI

www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXbS4apNlEw

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6UnpR6z4EE

Again, it may help to make the horn to become more tip-like, but it is not gonna help Trike making its horns super-sharp like they are usually depicted.

As for the curved shape, I also think that some degree of curvature might actually be helpful for use as a weapon, as long as the tips remain reasonably pointed (which given the shape and ontogeny of the horn cores seems likely). The natural motion of the horns when impacting an opponent would also be in an arc (head and neck rotation), after all, so it makes sense for the horns to be curved to follow that arc.

If the horns are in perfect shape (aka not broken), then yes, i agree that the tip should be quite pointy and fairly sharp. The tips were grown at an earlier stage of ontogeny, when the horn cores were still small in diameter, hence the tip will be quite tapered and pointy. Yes the hooked tips may be quite useful as weapons. It probably can help Trike to lock onto other Trike, or it can help Trike to essentially 'upper cut' its horn into certain predators.

[Supercommunist]

I think an advantage ceratopsians like triceratops have over modern extant animals is horn placement. Animals like buffalo have horns on the top of the heads, so they really have to lower their heads quite a bit to gore something and even then, it can be awkward the act itself most likely impedes their vision. A lot of ceratopsians have horns right above their eyes, and could potentially gore something just by walking forward.

[Infinity Blade]

I made a long post about this, although I more specifically compared them to elephants and rhinos.

theworldofanimals.proboards.com/post/31470