Are you a Triceratops whiz?

Triceratops was a herbivore, which means it ate only plants. It probably ate a lot of shrubs close to the ground and might have used its huge head and horns to knock down larger trees. 

Triceratops means ‘three-horned face’ in Greek. With two sharp horns above the eyes and a smaller one on its nose, you can probably guess how Triceratops got its name! 

An adult Triceratops was over two metres tall, which is about as high as an Asian elephant. At up to eight metres long, Triceratops would have been both longer and heavier though. 

While Tyrannosaurus rex and Triceratops shared the Cretaceous forest, Triceratops was a herbivore, which means it ate only plants. T. rex, on the other hand, was a fierce predator and scavenger and probably ate the occasional Triceratops, especially the young or injured.

Like all dinosaurs Triceratops hatched from eggs. Because eggs are so fragile it’s rare to find one fossilised. No confirmed Triceratops eggs have been discovered yet—but we expect they laid small eggs in a nest, as other dinosaurs did. 

There have been many theories about Triceratops head gear over the years. Today, most palaeontologists think the frill and horns played a role in mate selection, meaning they used them as a deer uses its antlers: to show off to potential mates and to scare off any competition.

Triceratops had both a narrow beak and an impressive set of leaf-shaped teeth. With this combination it could slice even the toughest plants.