Triceratops try-SAIR-uh-tops
"Three-horned face"
You 1.8 m (5.9 ft) tall
Triceratops 9 m (29.5 ft) long
6 people holding hands
- Length
- 9 m (29.5 ft) — About 9 m long, 3 m tall at the hip, ~9 tonnes for the largest individuals.
- Period
- Late Cretaceous (68–66 Mya)
- Place
- North America · Western United States · Saskatchewan, Canada
- Food
- Herbivore — Tough low-growing plants — palms, cycads, ferns. Shearing tooth batteries sliced fibrous material like a guillotine.
Triceratops was one of the last dinosaurs to evolve before the asteroid impact that ended the age of dinosaurs 66 million years ago. It is the textbook ceratopsian — a rhinoceros-sized plant-eater with a parrot-like beak, three horns, and a great bony frill protecting its neck.
Triceratops and Tyrannosaurus rex lived in the same place at the same time. We know they fought because some Triceratops bones carry healed T. rex bite marks — the Triceratops survived the attack long enough for the wounds to heal.
What we know
- Three horns: one short over the snout, two long over the eyes.
- Bony neck frill is solid, not the windowed kind seen in other ceratopsians.
- Lived alongside Tyrannosaurus rex — bite marks on Triceratops bones confirm it.
- Skull alone could be 2 m long, one of the largest of any land animal.
What we guess
- What the frill and horns were for. Once thought to be armor against predators. Now mostly seen as display structures for attracting mates and intimidating rivals.
- Whether young Triceratops looked different enough from adults to have been mistaken for separate species — *Torosaurus* and Triceratops may be growth stages of the same animal (still debated).
- Whether they lived in herds. Several juveniles found together is suggestive but not conclusive.