Triceratops’ Ancestors Discovered!

The famous “three horned face” dinosaur known as Triceratops has for years been considered the king of  the horned dinosaurs.But not any more! Triceratops’ triceratopsian family tree has just expanded, and as it turns out, Triceratops’ ancestors were bigger, weirder, and wilder!

This past month, a fossil of a new species that reigned long before Triceratops was discovered, making it the earliest known member of its family. The new species, called Titanoceratops, rivaled Triceratops in size, with an estimated weight of nearly 15,000 pounds and a massive eight-foot-long skull.  Titanoceratops lived in the American southwest during the late Cretaceous period around 74 million years ago. Paleontologists also said that Titanoceratops was probably only around for about a million years, while the triceratopsian family existed for a total of about 10 million years and roamed beyond the American southwest into other parts of the country.

Only around for about a million years?! Considering that modern humans (or homo sapiens) have only existed for about 200,000 years, Titanoceratops has still got an edge over us!

To read more about these fascinating dinos, turn to “Monsters of the Past,” card #11.