Triceratops

With its three horns, parrot-like beak and large frill that could reach nearly one metre across, the skull of Triceratops is one of the largest and most striking of any land animal.

Triceratops might have used its horns to fend off attacks from Tyrannosaurus. A partial Triceratops fossil collected in 1997 has a horn that was bitten off, with bite marks that match Tyrannosaurus. The fossil shows that the horn healed after being bitten, indicating that at least some Triceratops survived these encounters.

Puncture marks on fossil frills show that male Triceratops also used their horns to fight each other, probably to impress females.

Skin impressions have been found for Triceratops, showing that it had large, pebbled scales.

We know many other horned dinosaur species lived in herds because we’ve found fossils of many different individuals of the same species at the same location.

By moving in herds, prey animals can warn each other of danger and lessen their chances of being singled out by a predator.

However, Triceratops was unusual in this respect, as their remains are usually found individually, which suggests that they may have spent much of their lives alone.

Triceratops’ frill might have helped to protect its neck, but some specimens show Tyrannosaurus bite marks puncturing the frill, so it wasn’t always enough.

The frills could also have been used to attract mates or as a way for members of the same species to recognise each other.

Triceratops was originally discovered in 1887 by the American scientist Othniel Charles Marsh. His first find was a pair of horn cores.

Horn cores are the bony inner part of the dinosaur’s horns, which in life would have been covered in keratin – the same stuff our hair and fingernails are made of. This keratin would have made the horns longer and sharper in life than the fossils might suggest.

To begin with, Othniel thought the horn cores belonged to a giant bison, so he called his find Bison alticornis.

But it wasn’t long before more remains were unearthed, showing more of the animal. Othniel eventually realised the cores belonged to a three-horned dinosaur, which he called Triceratops.

In the years that followed, fossil hunters found more Triceratops skulls in a variety of shapes and sizes. This made scientists think there could be lots of different species of Triceratops.

Today, we think there were only two species – Triceratops horridus and Triceratops prorsus. The wide variety of skulls probably just means individual Triceratops could look quite different from one another.

Triceratops was a herbivore – a plant eater.

It had a sharp beak to snip and clip vegetation and rows of teeth at the back of its jaws that formed shearing surfaces for grinding up tough plant material.

Triceratops probably ate low-growing plants, but its ability to raise its head also suggests it could reach slightly higher vegetation.

It may have used its frill and horns to push through dense plant growth or to defend itself while feeding.

Triceratops wasn’t related to rhinoceroses at all.

Apart from the visual similarity of the nose horn and bulky body, these two creatures belong to totally different groups of animals.

Triceratops was a dinosaur, whereas rhinoceroses are mammals.

The mammal family tree stretches back a long way. The earliest true mammals – the ancestors of modern rhinos – were around in the Late Triassic Period, about 225–210 million years ago. They evolved alongside dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures and were well established by the time Triceratops appeared 68 million years ago in the Late Cretaceous.

Sometimes when two unrelated animals happen to have similar lifestyles or face similar challenges, they can evolve along the same lines and end up looking a bit like each other.

Scientists call this convergent evolution.

Another example is bats and birds – they aren’t related but both have wings. Bats evolved their wings separately, which is also why they look a little different to those of birds, being skin covered rather than feathered.