Ask aDino Field Guide ← Cretaceous

Artist's reconstruction · realistic art coming in a later version

Triceratops

try-SEH-ruh-tops

“Three-Horned Face”

Cretaceous
When
Late Cretaceous
Where
North America
Size
Up to 30 ft long
Diet
Plants

7 Facts

1–7
  1. Triceratops had three horns and a giant bony frill around its neck.
  2. Its name means “Three-Horned Face.”
  3. The two brow horns could be over 3 feet long.
  4. The frill may have been for protection, for showing off, or for telling friends apart.
  5. It had a beak like a parrot and hundreds of teeth for grinding tough plants.
  6. It may have used its horns to defend against T. rex — some fossils show the two fought.
  7. Triceratops was one of the last dinosaurs alive before the extinction.