22 Facts About Triceratops

Triceratops was traditionally placed within the "short-frilled" ceratopsids, but modern cladistic studies show it to be a member of the Chasmosaurinae which usually have long frills.

Triceratops has been documented by numerous remains collected since the genus was first described in 1889 by American paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh.

Triceratops holotype was collected in 1888 from the Lance Formation of Wyoming, USA, by fossil hunter John Bell Hatcher, yet Marsh initially described this specimen as another species of Ceratops.

Triceratops remains have subsequently been found in the American states of Montana and South Dakota, as well as the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta.

Hands and forearms of Triceratops retained a fairly primitive structure compared to other quadrupedal dinosaurs such as thyreophorans and many sauropods.

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Triceratops is the best-known genus of the Ceratopsidae, a family of large, mostly North American horned dinosaurs.

In 1949, Charles M Sternberg was the first to question this position, proposing instead that Triceratops was more closely related to Arrhinoceratops and Chasmosaurus based on skull and horn features, making Triceratops a chasmosaurine genus.

In phylogenetic taxonomy, the genus Triceratops has been used as a reference point in the definition of Dinosauria; dinosaurs have been designated as all descendants of the most recent common ancestor of Triceratops and modern birds.

Unlike most animals, skull fossils are far more common than postcranial bones for Triceratops, suggesting that the skull had an unusually high preservation potential.

Analysis of the endocranial anatomy of Triceratops suggest its sense of smell was poor compared to that of other dinosaurs.

Triceratops teeth were arranged in groups called batteries, of 36 to 40 tooth columns in each side of each jaw, with 3 to 5 stacked teeth per column, depending on the size of the animal.

The great size and numerous teeth of Triceratops suggests that they ate large volumes of fibrous plant material, with some researchers suggesting palms and cycads, and others suggesting ferns, which then grew in prairies.

Triceratops were long thought to have used their horns and frills in combat with predators such as Tyrannosaurus, the idea being discussed first by Charles H Sternberg in 1917 and 70 years later by Robert Bakker.

Since the Triceratops wounds healed, it is most likely that the Triceratops survived the encounter.

Tyrannosaurus is known to have fed on Triceratops, as shown by a heavily tooth-scored Triceratops ilium and sacrum.

Histological examination reveals that the frill of Triceratops is composed of fibrolamellar bone which contains fibroblasts that play a critical role in wound healing, and are capable of rapidly depositing bone during remodeling.

In 2006, the first extensive ontogenetic study of Triceratops was published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society.

The study, by John R Horner and Mark Goodwin, found that individuals of Triceratops could be divided into four general ontogenetic groups: babies, juveniles, subadults, and adults.

Significant variety is seen even in those skulls already identified as Triceratops, Horner said, "where the horn orientation is backwards in juveniles and forward in adults".

Triceratops lived during the Late Cretaceous of North America, its fossils coming from the Evanston Formation, Scollard Formation, Laramie Formation, Lance Formation, Denver Formation, and Hell Creek Formation.

Triceratops was one of the last ceratopsian genera to appear before the end of the Mesozoic.

Triceratops is the official state fossil of South Dakota, and the official state dinosaur of Wyoming .