Triceratops
Triceratops
Triceratops was a plant-eating dinosaur with three facial horns and a broad bony frill. It lived near the end of the Cretaceous.
At a glance
- Location
- Western North America during the Late Cretaceous, in landscapes preserved today as fossil-bearing rocks.
- Diet
- Herbivore
- Food
- Tough plant material cropped with a beak and processed by shearing teeth.
Classification
- Common name
- Triceratops
- Browse group
- Reptiles
- Scientific name or taxon
- Triceratops
- Taxon rank
- genus
- Family
- Ceratopsidae
- Genus
- Triceratops
Taxonomy checked against GBIF. For breeds and hybrids, this describes the listed parent taxon.
Three things to know
- It had three facial horns.
- A broad frill extended behind its skull.
- Its teeth were adapted to process plants.
Habitat and range
Western North America during the Late Cretaceous, in landscapes preserved today as fossil-bearing rocks.
Appearance and adaptations
Two large brow horns and a smaller nose horn stood above a beaked mouth. A wide frill extended behind the skull.
Diet and behaviour
A quadrupedal herbivore, it processed vegetation with specialised teeth. Fossils with healed injuries provide evidence of encounters with predators.
Sources
- Natural History Museum: Triceratops
- GBIF: Triceratops · Directory entry
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