NAME

Meaning - Torosaurus means “pierced lizard”
Pronounced - TOR-o-SAWR-us
Named By - Othniel Marsh
When Named - 1891
DIET

Herbivore (plant-eater) - it may have eaten conifers, cycads, ginkgos, and flowering plants. Torosaurus could chew well with its cheek teeth (like other ceratopsians, but unlike most other dinosaurs).
SIZE

Length - 21-25 ft (6.2-7.6 m) long
Height - 7 ft (2 m) tall at the hips
Weight - roughly 4 tons
WHEN IT LIVED

Late Cretaceous period, about 70-65 million years ago
WHERE IT LIVED

Fossils have been found in the USA (Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, South Dakota, New Mexico, Texas, Utah), and Canada (Saskatchewan), North America.
FOSSILS

The first Torosaurus skull was found by the fossil hunter John Bell Hatcher.
CLASSIFICATION
  • Kingdom Animalia (animals)
  • Phylum Chordata (having a hollow nerve chord ending in a brain)
  • Class Archosauria (diapsids with socket-set teeth, etc.)
  • Order Ornithischia - bird-hipped plant-eating dinosaurs
  • Suborder Ceratopsia - horned, frilled plant-eaters
  • Superfamily Coronosauria
  • Family Ceratopsinae
  • Genus Torosaurus
  • Species T. latus (type species named by Marsh 1891)
INTERESTING FACTS

Torosaurus’ enormous horned skull was 8 feet long. It had a large, bony neck frill, a short horn on the snout, two long eyebrow horns, and a toothless beak.
LINK

A coloring/information page to print on Torosaurus.