SMALL TRICERATOPS HORN. ...

Description

SMALL TRICERATOPS HORN
Triceratops horridus
Late Cretaceous, Maastrichtian stage
Hell Creek Formation, South Dakota, USA
The Triceratops is undoubtedly one of the world's best-known and most popular dinosaurs, due in part to its distinctive three-horned skull and flared bony frill. Although fearsome in appearance, these horns were long-considered to serve a primarily defensive function; in the late Cretaceous period the Triceratops roamed in vast herds across what is now North America, a prime target for their deadly enemy, the T-rex. Recent scholarship, however, has suggested a function much like the antlers of the reindeer or the rhinoceros beetle, for rituals of display and courtship. The first Triceratops bones were discovered near Denver in 1887; a pair of horns attached to a cranial fragment, and was initially thought to be those of an extinct buffalo. A much more complete skull taken from the Lance Formation in Wyoming the following year prompted the coining of the Triceratops genus. This supraorbital horn is probably from a juvenile, judging by its small size and single curve. It has been carefully prepped and repaired with about 1 ½ inches of the tip replaced. It retains its fantastically rugose texture as well as a fragment of the animal's skull. Presented on metal stand it makes for a superb display piece and measures 20 inches around the curve.



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