Smallest Triceratops skull described
By Robert Sanders, Media Relations 06 March 2006
BERKELEY – With its big, hockey puck-sized eyes, shortened face and nubby horns, it was probably as cute as a button - at least to its mother, a three-horned dinosaur called Triceratops that could weigh as much as 10 tons and had one of the largest skulls of any land animal on the planet.
"The baby Triceratops confirmed our argument that the horns and frill of the skull likely had another function other than sexual display or competition with rivals, which people have often argued, and allows us to propose that they were just as important for species recognition and visual communication in these animals," Goodwin said.
"The baby Triceratops confirmed our argument that the horns and frill of the skull likely had another function other than sexual display or competition with rivals, which people have often argued, and allows us to propose that they were just as important for species recognition and visual communication in these animals," Goodwin said.
"The baby skull shows us how the bones that make up the skull actually grew and fit together, because we see the sutures and sutural surfaces, which were completely obliterated in the adults," he said.
Goodwin continues his excavations in Montana, concentrating on the dinosaurs of the Lower Hell Creek Formation that are slightly older than the T. rex and Triceratops fossils from the Upper Hell Creek Formation.
Click here to access the full press release by UC Berkeley News
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