NAME

Meaning - Triceratops means “three-horned face”
Pronounced try-SER-a-tops
Named By - Othniel Marsh
When Named - 1889
DIET

Herbivore (plant-eater)
SIZE

Length - 30 feet (9 m) long
Height - 7 ft (2 m) tall at the hips
Weight - up to 6-12 tons
WHEN IT LIVED

Late Cretaceous period, about 72-65 million years ago
WHERE IT LIVED

Fossils have been found in western Canada and the western United States, North America.
FOSSILS

What has been Found - About 50 Triceratops skulls and some partial skeletons have been found.
Who Found the First Fossil and When - The first Triceratops skull was found in 1888 by 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 dinosaurs (plant-eaters)
  • Suborder Marginocephalia - (meaning “fringed heads”)
  • Infraorder Ceratopsia (also called Ceratopia)
  • Family Ceratopsidae
  • Genus Triceratops
  • Species T. horridus (type species named by Marsh, 1889)
INTERESTING FACTS

When threatened by predators, Triceratops probably charged into its enemy like the modern-day rhinoceros does. Triceratops was probably a herding animal, like the other ceratopsians. T. rex probably ate dinosaurs like Triceratops.
LINKS

A detailed page on Triceratops.