Tuesday, June 04, 2013

Triceratops Trio (Family?) Found in Wyoming: Two Adults, One Juvenile

Paleontologists digging in northeastern Wyoming have uncovered fossilized remains of three triceratops—possibly the most complete specimens of the dinosaurs yet found.

The triceratops bones were initially discovered by a rancher who owns the land in Newcastle, Wyo., just west of Mt. Rushmore. What is grassland today would have looked more like a subtropical flatland when the dinosaurs called it home during the Cretaceous period. So far the dig has uncovered bones from three triceratops—two adults and a juvenile about half their size.


Paleontologists think the three dinosaurs may have been a family, which could offer new insights into triceratops behavior and development. But there isn’t a happy ending to their story. Some of the largest dinosaur’s bones appear to have been bitten through, and researchers from the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research are pointing fingers at Tyrannosaurus rex...

HA! Toroceratops takes a hit.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

How is this a hit to the Toroceratops hypothesis? it claims that known adult Triceratops are actually subadult/young adults, still growing specimens that have yet to reach their oldest ontogenic stage (Torosaurus), if these "adults" are called like that because they meet the criteria of the traditional interpretation of what an adult Triceratops is, then they don't add anything to the discussion unless bone analysis finds them to be senile specimens on top of just being adults.