16 Triceratops

Triceratops written by Pam Holden

One of the last dinosaurs on Earth was Triceratops. It was an enormous animal that looked like a giant rhinoceros. It may have lived with lots of other Triceratops in a herd. They were such large animals that they had to go a long way to find enough food.

Triceratops was long, tall, and heavy, with a huge head and a pointed tail. It walked slowly on four short, strong legs with hard hooves and sharp claws.

The name Triceratops means "three-horned face". It had one short horn on its nose and two much longer ones pointing forward over its eyes.

Some of its bones were found as fossils more than one hundred years ago. Scientists called paleontologists put together horns and claws and teeth. They built a skeleton of Triceratops.

Scientists think that most kinds of dinosaurs laid eggs to hatch their babies. Triceratops grew to be one of the biggest dinosaurs. It grew and grew until it was about the size of a school bus! It had a large shield around its neck, with a zig-zag of bone at the top.