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RE: Charging Triceratops (Behavior Conjecture Alert!)
I agree with Travis about this, based on what I've
also noticed about the angle of some(presumably)
minimally distorted brow horns among the
better-preserved specimens of various Triceratops
skulls. Simply because Triceratops brow horns(or nasal
horns of other taxa like Styracosaurus or
Centrosaurus)may have evolved predominantly as
structures for intraspecific combat, this wouldn't
have made them ineffective as predator deterrants:
look at the horns of taurine bovids, cervids or those
of hippotragine antelope like Oryxes or Sables, which
can be quite deadly against lions and other would-be
predators. I think that a large enough, healthy adult
Triceratops would have easily been able to defend
itself in a 1:1 encounter with a tyrannosaurid, and
like the exclusive predator/exclusive scavenger
argument relating to T. rex, we should avoid
"either/or" interpretations of dinosaur structures
that could have multiple functions.
--Mark Hallett
--- travisw@traviswood.net wrote:
> In doing some research for a project a while back, I
> came to the
> understanding that the horns are often flattened
> laterally during the
> course of fossilization, causing the horns to lay
> directly over the head.
> In life, the horns were likely at an angle to the
> axis of the head,
> pointing out to the left and right. Given the added
> sheath covering the
> horn core, the horns would have been in an effective
> position for possible
> use in self defense.
>
> A photo of a skull showing the horns not as
> compressed (towards bottom of
> page):
>
http://www.smm.org/research/Paleontology/PaleoColl.php
>
> Best regards,
> Travis Wood
>
>
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