Top 5 Facts: Triceratops

1. Fight! – Artist Charles R Knight famously depicted a triceratops and T-rex squaring up for a fight in a 1901 painting. In reality, these two dinosaurs were not prominent adversaries.

2. Range – The triceratops genus existed during the Late Cretaceous period in what is now North America. Many of today’s finds are discovered in the Hell Creek Formation in Montana, USA.

3. Valid – Despite many species being named, only two species of triceratops are considered valid today by palaeontologists. These are triceratops horridus (1889) and triceratops prorsus (1890).

4. Origins – Today, the evolutionary origins of the triceratops are considered to be in Asia during the Jurassic period. However, they only became prominently horned animals in the Late Cretaceous.

5. Herd – Despite TV shows and Hollywood movies commonly depicting triceratops as herding animals, there is actually very little recorded evidence that supports this claim.