TRICERATOPS

Triceratops horridus

Etymology: Rough three-horned face

Nickname: "Trike"

Classification: Marginocephalia, Ceratopsidae

Diet: Herbivore

Size: 7.5 meters long

Provenance: Lance Formation, Wyoming, USA - Late Cretaceous, Maastrichtian stage, 68 - 66 million years ago

Movie appearances: Jurassic Park (1993); The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997); Jurassic Park III (2001); Jurassic World (2015); Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018); Jurassic World: Dominion (2022); Jurassic World Rebirth (2025)

Triceratops horridus is a species of herbivorous ceratopsid marginocephalian that lived in North America at the end of the Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous period. It is characterized for its huge frill, with one long horn over each eye, that could reach almost two meters in length. A third smaller horn is located on top of its snout. It is the most famous member of the Ceratopsidae family, one of the most successful group of herbivorous dinosaurs in the Late Cretaceous of North America. It is also one of the largest known species of the family. Members of this species may display a wide degree of individual variation, with the shape of the nasal horn being often a frequent denominator of an individual's identity. It is the type species of the genus Triceratops.

Triceratops can be rather aggressive creatures that have to be taken with some care. They come in two different color varieties, one of them being fully brown and the other being beige with faint stripes along the back. Triceratops have been observed consuming plants that would otherwise not be part of their normal diet, a product of their forceful adaptation to a Holocene environmental context; this allows them to be surprisingly adaptable, but that has known side effects, with cases of intoxicated individuals being known. These dinosaurs appear to be able to coexist fairly with a multitude of other herbivorous dinosaurs.

Upon the resurrection of this dinosaur, 13 individuals were created in Isla Sorna, during the 1980s, being taken care of by the local workers, where their social bonds were very early documented. 

Upon the strike of Hurricane Clarissa, in 1993, individuals in Isla Sorna (as well as those that were since transported to Isla Nublar), escaped their confinement and roamed free in the islands; it wasn't until the onset of the 21st century that Masrani Global Corporation installed Jurassic World in Isla Nublar and started to manage Triceratops back as captive animals. After all these years, Triceratops behaviour towards Holocene plants still proved complicated, especially for the babies which weren't instructed by their parents on the types of plants they should be eating, and intoxication reports continued to be observed even in Jurassic World. 

In 2015, the rampage of the Indominus rex lead the park to shut down and the Triceratops lead a life as wild animals again, in Isla Nublar, until 2018, when the eruption of Mount Sibo threatened their existence. Some of them were taken by mercenaries to Lockwood Manor, in California, where they eventually escaped to the nearby woods, including a mother and child. By the following year, in 2019, the escaped Triceratops seemed to have retained a stable resident population in California.

By 2022, many Triceratops were captured and brought to the Biosyn Sanctuary, located in Italy, becoming formidable local wild residents that contribute to the herbivorous community of the region.

FILM vs. REALITY

The Triceratops shown in the film demonstrates many superficial similarities with its real life counterpart, however there are some anatomical features that remain questionable. For example, the skull of the film's counterpart is a little bit more stocky, while the real life one tends to be more elongated. The tail of the film's counterpart is long and robust, while the real life one had a shorter and thinner tail. The feet of the real life Triceratops were not quite similar to those of elephants or rhinos, like the ones shown in the film; instead the back feet had longer fingers, more similar to those of smaller bipedal dinosaurs, and the front feet had only three weight-bearing toes with hoof-like nails, while two other digits remained clawless and were held more in the periphery. The nature of the limbs of Triceratops prevented it from being an effective galloping animal, unlike what the films show, and so it probably engaged in a fast and steady trot, if it wanted to move fast. The skin of the film's counterpart is sometimes shown to be rather leathery, especially in the Jurassic World models, but the real life one had a skin covered in a mosaic of small and large scales (the skin of the Jurassic Park Triceratops is more accurate in that respect).

Triceratops are depicted as herd-living animals that took care of their young. There is circumstancial evidence to suggest both gregarious habits and parental care were a commonality among ceratopsian dinosaurs, so that is a correct depiction in the movies. Real life babies had short frills and horns, as well as a shorter face, which is a detail retained in the movies.