Triceratops

A Triceratops skeleton. (Wikimedia)

A Triceratops skeleton. (Wikimedia)

A big dinosaur with some massive horns, Triceratops is one of the best known dinosaurs. If it was alive today, its massive size and horns would scare away any predator but Triceratops lived alongside one of the biggest predators of all time, Tyrannosaurus. Fossils show that these animals fought many battles together.

Discovery: Triceratops was first found in 1888 and was named in 1889.

Height: 3m

Length: 9m

Weight: 5500kg

Where it lived: Triceratops fossils are found in North America, both U.S.A and Canada, and are found in the Hell Creek Formation and other formations in America.

When it lived: It lived at the end of the dinosaur period, 72-65 million years ago in the Late Cretaceous.

What it ate: Triceratops was a plant eater.

Weapon of choice: Its three big horns that could measure over a metre. They used them to fight other Triceratops and its predators.

They are very common fossils which makes many palaeontologists think that Triceratops travelled in herds.

Weakness: Triceratops was big but not big enough for hungry T.rex. (although T.rex would probably have avoided a fully-grown, healthy Triceratops)