It was during the Cretaceous period about million years ago that non-flowering plants, such as conifers and cycads, started to lose ground as the predominant form of vegetation on Earth, and some of these species even became extinct. At the same time, flowering plants angiosperms were on the rise and, before long, around , species of angiosperm dominated the plant world.
Flowers give angiosperms greater capacity to evolve and adapt because they attract insects and vertebrates as pollinators. This creates a co-evolving system between plants and the animals around them, generating ever-increasing diversity.
Viburnum plicatum mariesii Japanese snowball shrub Triceratops may have played a role as a pollinator for angiosperm plants, enjoying a varied diet of fruits, seeds, leaves, twigs and roots. However, unlike modern herbivores, Triceratops would not have eaten grass as grasses did not evolve until the Cenozoic era, after the extinction of the dinosaurs.
McGill University is located on land which has long served as a site of meeting and exchange amongst Indigenous peoples, including the Haudenosaunee and Anishinabeg nations. McGill honours, recognizes and respects these nations as the traditional stewards of the lands and waters on which we meet today. Instead of being smooth, the skin of Triceratops , at least around its tail, may have been covered in bristle-like formations, similar to the ancient ceratopsian Psittacosaurus.
Triceratops was an herbivore, existing mostly on shrubs and other plant life. Its beak-like mouth was best suited for grasping and plucking rather than biting, according to a analysis in the journal Evolution. It also likely used its horns and bulk to tip over taller plants. It had up to teeth that were constantly being replenished, and were arranged in groups called batteries, with each battery having 36 to 40 tooth columns in each side of each jaw and three to five teeth per column, the Evolution study notes.
It may have eaten a range of plants, including ferns, cycads and palms. In , the first bones of a Triceratops were discovered in Denver and were sent to Othniel Charles Marsh. At first, Marsh believed it was a bison. It wasn't until more Triceratops bones were found in that Marsh gave the beast the name Triceratops.
While no complete skeleton has been unearthed, partial skeletons and skulls, including some from babies , have been found in Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota, Colorado, Wyoming and Canada Saskatchewan and Alberta. Triceratops was confined to North America because the continent had already split from Europe and, along with South America, had begun to drift across the ocean by the time the dinosaur evolved.
Triceratops fossils have typically been discovered as solitary individuals. But in a article in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology , scientists reported the first discovery of a Triceratops "bonebed," which contained three juvenile remains together and suggested a gregarious and possibly herding nature to the dinosaurs.
Precambrian: Facts About the Beginning of Time. Triceratops could reach up to 9 m 30 feet in length and 3 m 10 feet in height. It could weigh up to 11, kg 24, pounds. A huge frill grew out from the back of its skull, covering its neck. It had a beak-shaped mouth for ripping off vegetation. The largest known triceratops skull fossil is 2. The other two grew out forwards from its forehead.
In juveniles, the two forehead horns were short and stubby, and pointed backwards. As the animal matured the horns began to twist forward and straighten out. The horns of a full-grown triceratops reached over 1 m 3 feet in length.
The horns provided defence against predators such as T. Triceratops may also have used its horns against other triceratops in battles to attain dominance, just as animals such as rhinos and deer use their horns today. This means that Triceratops could have flushed it with blood, thereby changing or enhancing its colour in the same way we do when we blush. Alternatively, the frill may have helped in thermoregulation controlling body temperature , by allowing heat to escape from the blood vessels.
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