Triceratops facts for kids

Meet Triceratops

Its name means three-horned face. It had one horn on its nose and two long ones above its eyes.

It was a big plant-eater, about 9 metres long. Behind its head was a bony frill that could be nearly a metre across.

What did Triceratops eat?

Plants. Triceratops snipped tough plants with a sharp beak, a bit like a giant parrot's.

What were its horns and frill for?

Triceratops may have used its horns to fend off T. rex. One Triceratops fossil has a horn that a T. rex bit off, and the horn healed afterwards, so that Triceratops lived through the attack.

Marks on fossil frills show that male Triceratops also fought each other with their horns. The frill may have helped protect its neck, or helped Triceratops recognise its own kind.

When did Triceratops live?

At the very end of the Cretaceous period, about 68 to 66 million years ago, in what is now North America. It lived at the same time and in the same place as T. rex.

How was it found?

The first Triceratops horns ever found were thought to belong to a giant bison. In 1887 the horns were named as a new kind of bison. Two years later, Triceratops got its own name.

Triceratops in a nutshell

• Name means: three-horned face
• Lived: about 68 to 66 million years ago, in the Late Cretaceous
• Ate: plants
• Length: about 9 metres
• Found in: USA and Canada
• Lived at the same time as: T. rex, Ankylosaurus, Pachycephalosaurus and Edmontosaurus

Quick quiz: Triceratops

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