The three-horned dinosaur Triceratops used its spectacular headgear to charge and wrestle with other members of its species in a similar way to modern deer and antelope, according to research.

Battle scars on the skulls of Triceratops fossils have revealed a pattern of injuries that is best explained by Cretaceous-era combat in a study that could settle a long-running debate over whether the creature’s horns were used for fighting or display.

The findings also indicate that the dinosaur, which despite its terrible appearance was a herbivore, would have been likely to use its horns to defend itself against predators, as depicted by Ray Harryhausen, the animator and film producer, in One Million Years BC. In the 1966 film, in which Raquel Welch played a cavewoman in an animal-skin bikini, a Triceratops engages in battle with a carnivorous dinosaur called a Ceratosaurus, which it gores to death.

While the film is anachronistic — humans did not evolve for 65 million years after the dinosaurs, and Ceratosaurus died out 70 million years before Triceratops emerged — it is likely that some predators did meet their ends on a Triceratops’s horns.

The new research, led by Andrew Farke, of the Raymond M. Alf Museum of Palaeontology in Claremont, California, offers the strongest evidence yet that Triceratops’s horns were not just for show, as some scientists have argued.

“Palaeontologists have debated the function of the bizarre skulls of horned dinosaurs for years now,” Dr Farke said. “Some speculated that the horns were for showing off to other dinosaurs, and others thought that the horns had to have been used in combat against other horned dinosaurs. Unfortunately, we can’t just go and watch a Triceratops in the wild.” To get around that problem, Dr Farke’s team analysed the skulls of Triceratops specimens and compared them to those of Centrosaurus, another dinosaur that boasted three horns and a bony protective frill around its face.

The injuries seen on the Triceratops fossils were consistent with the animals charging one another and fighting with their horns. Centrosaurus, however, showed no such pattern, suggesting that its facial adornments were more for display. “If Triceratops and Centrosaurus only used their horns and frills for showing off we would expect no difference in the rate of injury for both animals,” Dr Farke said. In fact, a particular injury, of the squamosal bone on the frill, was ten times more frequent in Triceratops than in Centrosaurus.

“The most likely culprit for all of the wounds on Triceratops frills was the horns of other Triceratops,” Dr Farke said. “Our findings provide some of the best evidence to date that Triceratops might have locked horns with each other, wrestling like modern antelope and deer.” This suggests that the animals, principally males, sparred for dominance and access to mates. Many modern herbivores with antlers or horns do this.

Details of the research are published in the journal Public Library of Science One.

Ewan Wolff, of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who also contributed to the study, said it provided the most comprehensive look yet at Triceratops combat.

“In the past, individual remains have been used to reconstruct the story of ancient injuries,” he said. “I think this research shows the great potential of looking at injury patterns, even less obvious ones, to provide appropriate conclusions. The features we studied were very subtle.”

Dr Farke said it was likely that Triceratops used its horns for a variety of purposes, including defence and display.

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