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Triceratops
- large
plant-eating dinosaur
characterized by a great bony head frill and three horns. Its fossils
date to only the last 5 million years of the Late Cretaceous Period
(99 million to 65 million years ago), which makes
Triceratops one of the last
of the dinosaurs to have evolved.
The massive body measured
nearly 9 metres (30 feet) long and must have weighed four to five
tons, and the skull alone was sometimes more than two metres long.
Each of the two horns above the eyes was longer than a metre. The
frill, unlike that of other ceratopsians,
was made completely of solid bone, without the large openings
typically seen in ceratopsian frills. The front of the mouth was
beaklike and probably effective for nipping off vegetation. The cheek
teeth were arranged in powerful groups that could effectively grind
plant matter. The hind limbs were larger than the forelimbs, but both
sets were very stout. The feet ended in stubby toes probably covered
by small hooves. Triceratops
was an upland, browsing animal that may have traveled in groups or
small herds.
"triceratops" Encyclopędia
Britannica from Encyclopędia Britannica Premium Service.
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