Alton 1's Comments
Triceratops skulls have always shown a great variety. It's been a challenge for paleontologists to figure out what's a deformed individual and what's a juvenile animal and what's a female or male individual. The process of identification has been complicated by the tendency among early researchers to name new species whenever a new fossil differed slightly from another.
And then you had Torosaurus, where the skull is largest of any animal that ever lived on land, but the body is the same as Triceratops--and no juveniles showing the identifying features have been found.
A lot of progress has been made on this is in the past two decades. It's fascinating what we're finding out about the plasticity of ceratopsian bone and the life stages of these creatures.
Congratulations, and thanks, to all researchers involved.
And then you had Torosaurus, where the skull is largest of any animal that ever lived on land, but the body is the same as Triceratops--and no juveniles showing the identifying features have been found.
A lot of progress has been made on this is in the past two decades. It's fascinating what we're finding out about the plasticity of ceratopsian bone and the life stages of these creatures.
Congratulations, and thanks, to all researchers involved.
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http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20727713.500-morphosaurs-how-shapeshifting-dinosaurs-deceived-us.html
Check the additional illustration. (linked)