Dino card No. 1816 of 2,015

Triceratops

Say it: try-SARE-uh-tops

Name means: “three-horned face”1

Ate: PlantsHorned dinosLate Cretaceous

Triceratops was a huge plant-eater with a big frill on its head and three horns. It lived at the very end of the age of dinosaurs, about 66 million years ago. It was one of the last horned dinosaurs to walk the Earth.1

Lived

84 to 66 million years ago2

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

western North America, including Montana, South Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado, and Alberta (Canada)2

Food

Plants1

Length

8 to 9 m1

Weight

6 tonnes to 12 tonnes1

Height

2.5 to 3 m1

at the hips

Artist's life restoration of Triceratops — How Triceratops may have looked, by Connor Ashbridge. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Scientists still argue about colours and details.

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

Triceratops had a huge frill made of solid bone at the back of its skull, which may have been used to attract mates or scare off rivals.1

Its name means 'three-horned face' because it had two long brow horns and a smaller horn on its nose.1

Triceratops lived right up to the mass extinction that killed the non-bird dinosaurs, about 66 million years ago.1

Fossils of Triceratops have been found in huge bonebeds, with many individuals together, suggesting they may have lived in herds.1

Triceratops had a strong beak like a parrot's, which it used to bite off tough plants.1

Some scientists think Triceratops could have fought predators like Tyrannosaurus rex using its sharp horns.1

Myth buster

Myth: Triceratops was a slow, clumsy animal that could barely move.

Truth: Triceratops was actually quite fast for its size, able to run at speeds of up to 30 km/h (about 20 mph) on its strong legs.1

For dino experts

Scientific name: Triceratops
Named by: Marsh 18892
Group: Horned dinos
Family / clade: Ceratopsidae2
Classification: Ornithischia > Ceratopsia > Ceratopsidae2
Age of the rocks: 84 to 66 million years (Campanian to Maastrichtian)2
Rock formations: Lance, Hell Creek, Frenchman2
Countries: USA, Canada2
Fossil records: 166 in the Paleobiology Database2
Also known as: Diceratops, Diceratus, Nedoceratops, Sterrholophus (older names now counted as the same animal)2
Discovery: Triceratops was named by paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh in 1889, based on fossils found in Wyoming, USA.2
Still debated: Scientists still debate whether some fossils belong to Triceratops or to a separate, related dinosaur called Torosaurus.1

Where the facts come from

Triceratops (en.wikipedia.org)
Triceratops in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

Every fact on this page has a number that points to its source. If we got something wrong, sorry, we are dino fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.