Triceratops | A look at an icon

Today we're looking at the iconic dinosaur, Triceratops! How did it live? How did it grow? All that and more!
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Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:36 Discovery
1:08 Description
5:37 Environment/lifestyle
8:22 Ontogeny
10:10 Torrosaurus?
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Image credit:
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Triceratops (left) and Torosaurus (right) Art by Nicholas Longrich

[@cjalexanderjr8811]

A recent study suggest that triceratops was an omnivore basically filling the niche of a giant pig.

[@trippeddownthestairs8238]

Triceratops is actually my favorite dinosaur. They're just so cute.

[@ravensthatflywiththenightm7319]

Bit of a shame I haven't seen Triceratops duel Tyrannosaurus in recent movies. I'm looking at you, Jurassic World. 🦖

[@dino-gen]

I think so too! Such a wasted opportunity, considering it’s a fight that ACTUALLY happened countless times throughout history

[@mexicandog5224]

There like”oh it’s to boring make T.rex fight a spinosaurus instead”even though spino went extinct several million years before and probably lived in a way further formation

[@juliancaraveo5700]

​@@dino-gen They should've had it fight a Triceratops in the Prologue instead of the Giganotosaurus. But none of them die but instead get open wounds. Which then leads to mosquitoes getting the blood from both of the dinosaurs.

[@paladinkhan]

Its fascinating how many triceratops fossils have been found, so we can learn a good bit about them. I wonder if they were fairly abundant or if its coincidence? Cool fellas. Maybe their skulls are so hard they do stand up to time better, as theyre more dense or something

[@adamjacobs6644]

With Torosaurus maybe they ate different plants than Triceratops did. That could explain why Torosaurus and Triceratops were able to live in the same ecosystems as each other. We know Triceratops ate tough vegetation like cycads, ferns, and shrubs. It could also be that Torosaurus preferred more upland environments while Triceratops (like the narrator says) stuck mostly to open areas like fern parries and other semi wooded spots. Come to think of it, maybe Torosaurus was the more solitary animal while Triceratops lived in small heards or groups. If we look at the beak of Torosaurus it is smaller and more narrow than a Triceratops. The teeth do look a bit more robust in Triceratops than they do in Torosaurus. I actually got to look up close at a Triceratops skull and touch one (especaially the teeth) as a kid. Homer (The Triceratops) was a new discovery at the time and is the one I got to examine. Beak and teeth differences could support the idea that they fed on different plant material. Floodplain animals fossilize better than upland animals, so that combined with diet, and lifestyle differences could explain why Triceratops is more abundant than Torosaurus in the fossil record. If Triceratops was the bison of the latest Cretaceous North America maybe the Edmontosaurus was the horse and T.rex the lion/bear (or more accurately eagle). Ya know since T.rex is a coelurosaur and so are birds.

[@dino-gen]

This much is true! I can't say I've read of many notably upland areas from Hell Creek, but that's not rule it out completely

[@CaptainCretaceous91]

I was thinking of mammoths and mastodons when I read the start of your comment.

[@supertrike5893]

one interesting fact about triceratops is that despite them weighing more than 7 tons, they were surprisingly agile, their front legs are splayed out like those of lizards, while their back legs like that of rhinoceros, meaning that they could turn around very fast. Their head is connected to their body thanks to ball in socket joints, meaning that they can turn their head around, like how we humans can do something similar to that

[@randomleydave8846]

My thoughts on why torosaurus is rare than triceratops is because it was proably being outconpeted, since there where other herbivores and a much more succesfuel relative

[@Shannon-tm7ek]

In your opinion what was going on with the nasal area of ceratopsians? They all had the enlarged "hole", so it's function must've been crucial to their success.Almost no one seems to talk about it.

[@Luaeria]

Maybe it’s sexual dimorphism. Big bull bison and other bulls from other bovidae are frequently very anatomically divergent from the females in their male displays. Additionally there are several times more females than there are males of the species because of their function within a herd. It seems perfectly feasible to me that triceratops are the females of the species whilst torosaurus is the male iteration of the same species. Growing larger with wider set, larger brow horns and a larger, louder frill as a big sexual display.

[@Compsognathus09]

An amazing animal.

[@Shannon-tm7ek]

The Torosaurus frill may have been characteristic only for dominant males, like the facepads of orangutans.

[@floweryomi5351]

I've seen the bone fusion levels on the postcranial condile or whatever it's called on Torosaurus vs a trike, and they're definitely not the same. I feel like a lot of the evidence for the "Triceratops is Juvenile Torosaurus" can be simplified to "well you never see them in the same room together now do you" 😂

[@HammboneBob]

Dunno man, wish i could go back there and check for you.

[@Alberad08]

Thank you very much for providing this video! BTW in 8:38 you show two frog larvae with outer gills. I never saw tadpoles of European frogs, here in Germany (and I probably saw them all) that showed outer gills - I always thought that feature was reserverd to newts and salamanders. 🤔

[@UniDocs_Mahapushpa_Cyavana]

Maybe Sauropods 🦕 had a weird lifestyle where they were photosynthetic and overwhelmingly dessert dwelling animals, who only went towards the wet regions when they were thirsty and then retreated away to the desert. There, the harsh conditions made it really hard for predators and parasites to survive as they would likely overheat and if they failed their sauropod hunt there, they would just starve to death, because there is no other major food source for them. That would mean they may not have had any place to live in North America (at least one with a fossil site) in the Cretaceous period. However, they were thriving in any place with deserts like Argentina as they had such a unique niche, they did not really have any direct competition. So they would have been most like the desert dwelling elephants 🐘 of today.

[@shaniaduchene8063]

Could the Torrosaurus be a cross-breed between two different ceratopsian dinosaurs that existed at the same time? Or perhaps a benign rare, recurring genetic abnormality, like heterochromia or something?

[@MastemaJack]

I have a triceratops tattoo

[@kilianteni7884]

First

[@Guitar387]

T rex would not of messed with a healthy adult triceratops. I bet T rex gave them a wide birth. T rex Tooth marks are on some triceratops , but they were either young old or unhealthy in a vulnerable position.

[@Googly_moogly6]

Trex ate them for breakfast but this was a tough nut to crack

[@MybeautifulandamazingPrincess]

Trex avoided the Triceratops. The claim you made the Trex ate the Triceratops all the time is simply false. The Trex could easily maim.or kill a Trex, break is leg There were multiple dinosaurs that were out of the Trex or other big predators' league, like Titonosaurs or the Triceratops. The Trex only ate baby ones or sick ones that couldn't fight back

[@willcarroll8438]

I am pick me pick me 🙋‍♂️

[@user-mn6mm6zo3i]

Males / females

[@getgaymin]

"Seriously, I do have a girlfriend... that's why I wear this tight sweater" (cut away to *whisper*) "it also helps attract more subs...much like triceratopsian horns"

[@dino-gen]

🤫