Triceratops was one of the last dinosaurs to have lived before the great extinction at the end of the Cretaceous period (K-T extinction). It moved slowly on four well built legs browsing amongst the fern covered plains of what was to become North America.

Fossils have been found of large numbers of animals that have all been killed at the same time, by floods or volcanic eruptions, supporting the idea that Triceratops lived together in herds.

Above - Heads up, trouble's brewing; two Triceratops during rutting season. The biggest horns or neck frill is usually enough to decide who's top 'tops; but sometimes it takes a little more. It used to be thought that the neck frill was for defence but recently it has been determined that it was far too thin and is thought to have been for show to attract a mate.

Left - Triceratops was a herbivore and weighing around 11,000 kg it needed vast amounts of food each day to survive. It had a strong beak to strip the coarse leaves off the plants and big flat teeth (above) to grind them down.