T. K. Arispe

 Time to indulge in wild speculation!

I watched this interesting documentary on dinosaur biomechanics that seemed to show that it was very unlikely that ceratopsians' skulls could withstand the stress of charging at opponents in the manner of rhinoceroses, and it got me to wondering how else ceratopsians might have used their horns. (And no, I don't believe they were purely display structures. Nature makes weapons to be used, and I'm not of the persuasion of writing off every unusual anatomical element as a display structure unless all other options are exhausted.)

The other day, I was watching a video of a bison using its horns to throw a tree (and that, ladies and gentlemen, is why you stay away from bison), and suddenly it occurred to me--what if ceratopsians used their brow horns to throw things instead of stab (for the most part)? A large animal like Tyrannosaurus getting lifted and thrown is going to hurt quite a lot, and I think large ceratopsians could manage that kind of thing with their massive builds.

I also think ceratopsians might have used their horns (especially their nose horns) more for shoving. I watched a video where a rhino was given a pumpkin, and it very adeptly used the flat of its horn to crush the pumpkin into edible chunks. Maybe ceratopsians did the same thing to fruiting bodies of plants, or used them in social shoving contests.

Just some thoughts.