|
An artists reconstruction of Triceratops,
based directly on the virtual Triceratops. (artwork by
Robert Walters)
|
Triceratops was a member of the plant-eating
Ornithischian dinosaur group called the Marginocephalia, so named
because of the architectural modifications that grace the rear
of its skull. It lived 70 to 65 million years ago, and was one
of the very last dinosaurs before they all became extinct 65 million
years ago.
The original fossil was found in Wyoming in the
1880s, during the time of the great dinosaur discoveries in the
American West. Hauled out of its quarry by horse-drawn wagon and
shipped on the new Transcontinental Railroad , it was brought
east from Wyoming and set up in the Smithsonian.
|
The original
skeletal mount of Triceratops, which premiered in 1905
at the Smithsonian. This was the world's first mount of a horned
dinosaur. Years of experiencing heat, humidity, and vibration
while on display had damaged the original bones, leading to this
project.
|
Triceratops has been on display in the Smithsonian Institution
since 1905. It was the first mounted Triceratops in the world
and as such has stood as the idea of what a Triceratops should
be. The original mount included skeletal elements from over a
dozen different individual Triceratops, some of which weren't
the same size and gave us bones that were too small for the skeleton.
It also contained several sculpted elements that technicians made
by hand, and the foot bones of a different dinosaur, a duckbill
dinosaur, to replace missing Triceratops bones. We discovered
recently that after nearly a century on display, enduring vibration
and changes in heat and humidity, the Triceratops bones desperately
need conservation.
|
