WEBVTT - How Did Triceratops Work?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeart Radio, Hey brain

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<v Speaker 1>Stuff Lauren Bogelbaum. Here in movie Jurassic Park, Sam Neil's

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<v Speaker 1>character Alan Grant said of the triceratops, this one was

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<v Speaker 1>always my favorite when I was a kid. Now I

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<v Speaker 1>see her. She's the most beautiful thing I ever saw.

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<v Speaker 1>Even if you're dinosaur phase came and went a few

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<v Speaker 1>decades ago, you'll probably recognize triceratops. The frilled, three horned

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<v Speaker 1>herbivore died out sixty five and a half million years ago,

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<v Speaker 1>but you can find its likeness pretty much anywhere, from

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<v Speaker 1>museums to toy stores to a National League Baseball park.

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<v Speaker 1>Our fossil record has been kind to this beast. Hundreds

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<v Speaker 1>of tri saratop skeletons have turned up in the American West,

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<v Speaker 1>and they're actually hard to avoid, the fossil rich Hell

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<v Speaker 1>Creek Formation of Montana, Wyoming, and the Dakotas. In seven

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<v Speaker 1>at Neil, Charles Marsh, the U. S. Geological Survey's official

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<v Speaker 1>vertebrate paleon ptologist, received a fossilized animal brow with two

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<v Speaker 1>large horns that a colleague had found near Denver, Colorado.

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<v Speaker 1>Unaware of the specimen's age, Marsh figured it came from

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<v Speaker 1>a prehistoric bison, which he named Bison alta cornice. Later

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<v Speaker 1>discoveries proved the creature was actually a dinosaur, far larger

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<v Speaker 1>than any cow relative. One incomplete skull bearing three horns

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<v Speaker 1>and a partial beak found its way to Marsh after

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<v Speaker 1>some Wyoming cowboys have lastowed the thing, snapping off a

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<v Speaker 1>horn in the process. Marsh dubbed the animal Triceratops, meaning

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<v Speaker 1>three horned face a nine scientific paper. Note that this

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<v Speaker 1>is a genus name. Under the system we used to

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<v Speaker 1>classify living things, a genus is one magnitude greater than

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<v Speaker 1>a species, so within the same genus you can have

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<v Speaker 1>multiple closely related species. Today to Triceratops, species both named

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<v Speaker 1>by Marsh are considered valid Triceratops hortus and Triceratops porer sous.

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<v Speaker 1>Close tension is required to tell these animals apart. All

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<v Speaker 1>Trisratops had three horned skulls, with two massive horns above

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<v Speaker 1>the eye sockets and a smaller one over the dose. However,

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<v Speaker 1>adult Triceratops porses had slightly longer nasal horns than their

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<v Speaker 1>cousins did. Another difference, the beaks of Triceratops poruses looked

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<v Speaker 1>proportionately shorter. We know both species changed as they aged,

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<v Speaker 1>and not just in terms of overall body size. A

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<v Speaker 1>bony frill protruded from the backside of every Triceratops skull,

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<v Speaker 1>but when these animals matured, their frills grew longer, often

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<v Speaker 1>compared to medieval shields. These frills may have served a

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<v Speaker 1>defensive purpose, or maybe they evolved as communication tools. The

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<v Speaker 1>structures could have been vibrantly colored, advertising the health and

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<v Speaker 1>stanima of individual dinos. Trisaatups Hatchlings had stubby, little brow

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<v Speaker 1>horns above their eyes. Those horns lengthened and curved backward

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<v Speaker 1>during adolescence, but over time a dramatic reversal took place.

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<v Speaker 1>The horns straightened out and then bent forward. In older specimens,

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<v Speaker 1>maturity came with growth spurts. The smallest known Triceratops skull

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<v Speaker 1>from a very young animal is just eleven point eight

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<v Speaker 1>inches or thirty centimeters long. Other recovered skulls measuring well

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<v Speaker 1>over six and a half feet or two meters in

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<v Speaker 1>length clearly belonged to adults weighing and estimated six and

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<v Speaker 1>a half thirteen tons. The biggest triceratops were twenty nine

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<v Speaker 1>and a half feet or nine meters long. From nosed tail,

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<v Speaker 1>the tips of their shoulders would have stood almost ten

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<v Speaker 1>ft or three meters off the ground. Unlike alligators and

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<v Speaker 1>monitor lizards, triceratops held their arms and legs in a

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<v Speaker 1>more or less vertical position. Yet, as Donald are Prothero

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<v Speaker 1>notes in his twenty nineteen book The Story of Life

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<v Speaker 1>in twenty five Fossils, Tales of intrepid fossil hunters, and

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<v Speaker 1>the Wonders of Evolution, most triceratops fingers didn't point dead ahead. Instead,

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<v Speaker 1>these hand digits were angled away from the body. Think

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<v Speaker 1>up jazz hands. On top of the u s states

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<v Speaker 1>we've mentioned, Triceratops fossils also occur in west central Canada.

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<v Speaker 1>The genus first appeared around sixty eight million years ago,

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<v Speaker 1>near the tail end of the geologic period called the Cretaceous.

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<v Speaker 1>Triceratops were still at large when a mass extinction closed

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<v Speaker 1>out the Cretaceous sixty five and a half million years ago. Thus,

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<v Speaker 1>Triceratops has the distinction of being one of the last

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<v Speaker 1>non avian dinosaurs to ever evolve. It was also a

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<v Speaker 1>late arriving Saratopsian distributed across Eurasia in North America. The

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<v Speaker 1>Saratopsians were a group of plant eating dinosaurs that predominantly

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<v Speaker 1>lived in the Cretaceous, known for their beaks and long,

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<v Speaker 1>flaring cheekbones. They ranged from bipedal dog sized animals too

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<v Speaker 1>well giant quadrupeds like Triceratops. Many had horns and or

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<v Speaker 1>frills arranged in a spectacular array of different combinations. Triceratops

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<v Speaker 1>belonged to the Chasmosaurinae, a major subgroup of these dinos,

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<v Speaker 1>characterized mainly by their elongated snouts, among other features. Large

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<v Speaker 1>eyebrow horns were another common trait among the Chasmasaurians. Triceratops

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<v Speaker 1>included Lesions and fractures are frequently seen on trisaratops frill

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<v Speaker 1>and cheek bones. These could indicate that the animals used

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<v Speaker 1>their brow horns in one on one combat with each other.

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<v Speaker 1>The jury is still out on whether or not Trisaretops

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<v Speaker 1>moved in herds, but we have a pretty good idea

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<v Speaker 1>of what the creatures ate. Their teeth were arranged in

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<v Speaker 1>so called dental batteries. Every individual tooth was stacked in

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<v Speaker 1>a vertical column of three to five teeth, and these

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<v Speaker 1>formed rows, with thirty six to forty tooth loaded columns

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<v Speaker 1>occurring side by side. Altogether, a single triceratops could have

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<v Speaker 1>eight hundred teeth at its disposal. With its narrow beak,

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<v Speaker 1>powerful jaws, and replaceable self sharpening teeth, Triceratops probably fed

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<v Speaker 1>on tough, fibrous plants. But what eight the triceratops. Well,

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<v Speaker 1>we know tyrannosaurs. Rex lived in the same time and place,

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<v Speaker 1>and it occasionally made a meal of the big herbivore.

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<v Speaker 1>Bite marks matching t Rex's distinctive teeth have been found

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<v Speaker 1>on several triceratops skeletons, with the frills and faces getting

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<v Speaker 1>more than their fair share of the injuries appointing to

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<v Speaker 1>these scars. Some have argued that t Rex would methodically

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<v Speaker 1>rip the heads off of dead triceratops by grabbing ahold

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<v Speaker 1>of the frills and tugging, the predators could decapitate the bodies,

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<v Speaker 1>exposing choice neck muscles below. Nothing beats a hard earned meal.

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<v Speaker 1>Today's episode was written by Mark Mancini and produced by

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<v Speaker 1>Tyler Playing for More in this and lots of other

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<v Speaker 1>curious topics. Visit House to works dot com. Brain Stuff

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