Dinosaurs 101 Triceratops

Next to T. Rex, Triceratops is the most popular movie dinosaur!

 This guy is the most popular Triceratops on PBS' Dinosaur Train. Meet Tank Triceratops.....

tri·cer·a·tops :[trahy-ser-uh-tops] 

a dinosaur of the late Cretaceous Period,characterized by  having a bony crest on the neck, a long horn over each eye, and a shorter horn on the nose.

 

The name "Triceratops" is a bit misleading.

The name Triceratops has Greek origins meaning "three-horned face," but this dinosaur had only two real horns on his head and the third one was much shorter on his snout. Like T. Rex, Tank Triceratops was an American dinosaur with Triceratops remains being found in Montana, the Dakotas, Wyoming and Colorado.

Tank lived in the late Cretaceous Period about 70- 65 Million years ago. He had much in common with T. Rex aside from living in America. They both enjoyed the marshes and forests as Triceratops was alsoa herbivore feasting on leaves and plants. I just don't think Triceratops were actually blue. Perhaps more of a camo type color.....

Triceratops' skull was one-third the length of its entire body. Can you imagine having a head that big?

Part of what makes Triceratops such a recognizable dinosaur is the enormous size of its skull, which, with its backward-pointing frill, could attain a length of over seven feet. Unbelievably, the skulls of other ceratopsians like stryracosaurus were even bigger and more elaborate! Triceratops weighed about 2 tons (4000 pounds) and grew to be as long as 25 feet! Most remarkable is the fact that Triceratops would have been one of the last dinosaurs standing during the Cretaceous period. That's one tough Dinosaur!