Triceratops

Triceratops is many peoples' favorite dinosaur, so I hope I did it justice. The quills are a recent discovery, and it is still unknown exactly which species had them and what they really looked like. But I wanted to give it a shot! The name "Triceratops" actually refers to a genus, not a species. Though my drawing is not fully realistic, it is probably closest to T. prorsus. I really love how ceratopsians have *so many* different skull shapes -- I hope to draw more in the future.

Triceratops
Meaning: tri-kéras-ops “three-horn-face”

Subfamily: Chasmosaurinae
Family: Ceratopsidae
Order: Ornithischia

Time Period: Maastrichtian (Late Cretaceous) -- about 66 to 68 million years ago
Location: Present-day Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota (US) / Saskatchewan, Alberta (Canada)

Length: 9m / 29.5ft long
Weight: 6.1-12.0 tonnes / 13,000-26,000 lbs.

Diet: Herbivore, possibly Omnivore

Triceratops is one of the most well-known and popular plant-eating dinosaurs in existence. It had a relatively large head, with three horns and a massive bony frill - excellent for both offense and defense. Several Triceratops fossils were discovered in the famous Hell Creek formation, the archaeological site where Tyrannosaurus Rex was also found. Living in the Late Cretaceous period, it actually lived during the same time period as the Rex.

The name “Triceratops” actually refers to the genus, which currently includes 18 different possible species. However, saying “Triceratops” usually refers to one of the two most evidenced species: Triceratops horridus and Triceratops prorsus. They look very similar, except that prorsus is slightly larger and its horns are angled upwards, while horridus is slightly smaller and its horns are angled forward. Note that the shape and curvature of the horns is very similar; it is the angle of their placement on the head that is the most obvious difference. However, there are various other minor anatomical differences.

The Ceratopsidae family that Triceratops belongs to shows an incredible variety of different kinds of horns and frills. Over 32 genera, all with different head shapes, have been documented.  Mainly, the Ceratopsidae family is divided into two subfamilies - Ceratopsinae/Chasmosaurinae (those with developed brow horns, such as Triceratops) & Centrosaurinae (those with developed nasal horns, such as Styracosaurus). Triceratops skulls were so large, they took up nearly one-third of the entire length of the animal.

There is actually a lot of debate over WHY Triceratops and other Ceratopsids have horns and frills. Recent evidence shows that many species’ frills were surprisingly fragile (too fragile for practical defensive use), but they had a significant network of blood vessels throughout their skulls (possible evidence of color changing as the frills could be flushed red).  This leads paleontologists to believe that the frills and horns could have been used as displays -- for things such as mating displays, dominance displays, scaring away predators, or even just identifying other members of their own species. Being defensive weapons is still a possibility of course, but they could have been much more than just that. Deer with antlers, and other modern-day animals show similar behavior.

A recent new discovery of ceratopsid skin suggests that Triceratops MAY have had quills along its back. It is still unclear why, and it is unknown specifically which species had quills and which did not.

It is also theorized that, with their sharp jaws, Triceratops may have occasionally snacked on meat. While this might sound strange for an “herbivore”, several modern-day herbivores including hippos, deer, and cows have been observed eating meat. Sometimes they opportunistically scavenge on carcasses that they found, but on rare occasions they do kill smaller animals for consumption. The reasoning for this is yet unknown even for our modern-day animals, but it is suspected that they do this to supplement their diet with nutrients that they can’t find elsewhere, especially when they are starving. Typically however, Triceratops ate low-ground foliage.

Recently, dinosaur ontogeny (the study of an organism’s lifespan) has become a topic of hot debate. The biggest proposal is that Triceratops may actually be the juvenile or sub-adult form of Torosaurus, another ceratopsid dinosaur that was previously believed to be only a cousin of Triceratops. So far there is not enough evidence to prove this, but it does raise the question of whether or not some of the dinosaurs we discovered might actually be different life stages of the same species, instead of being entirely new species.

stephaniekit.com