dinosaurs: triceratops

• The name ‘Triceratops’ comes from the Greek language, with ‘tri’ meaning three and ‘keratops’ meaning horned face.
• Triceratops lived in the late Cretaceous Period (around 65 million years ago).
• The Triceratops is one of the most easily recognizable dinosaurs due to its large body, unique frill and three horns.
• It needed its three horns to try and protect itself from the Tyrannosaurus Rex which lived during the same time period.
• It is believed that fully grown Triceratops were about 8m (26ft) in length, 3m (10ft) in height and weighed anywhere between 6 to 12 tons.
• The skull of a Triceratops alone could grow over 2m (7ft) in length.
• The Triceratops was a plant eating (herbivore) dinosaur.
• The first known fossils to be that of a Triceratops were horns attached to a partial skull, found near Denver, Colorado in 1887.
• Triceratops had anywhere between 400 and 800 teeth, although only a small percentage of these were in use at any one time as they were constantly replaced throughout its lifetime.
• Triceratops was represented in the popular Transformers toy line and animated series as Slag, an Autobot that could transform into a Triceratops form.
• The US state of Wyoming lists the Triceratops as its state dinosaur.