Re: Triceratops defence

["Roger A. Stephenson" <roger@dtgnet.com>]

Greetings All,

Triceratops could have used a number of methods for defense if T. rex was a
predator of these beasts, but the most logical seems to be for it to get in
thick cover with big trees, and keep those horns facing the attacker,
manuver to use the trees as blockers and the horns as discouragement. It
doesn't seem as though a Triceratops could outrun a T. rex, unless of
course T. rex was a poor runner, (not that I want to stir that pot again),
and even if the horns were not the weapons of defense they seem they would
beat the back end of the Triceratops. Of course this really does depend on
whether or not T. rex sought out Triceratops. After all there were all
these fat Edmontosaurs running around, without horns. There are many mass
mortality sites in our area, all of them Edmontosaurus annectens and I've
yet to hear of a single Triceratops horridus bone bed. I tend to believe
that triceratops were sortta like elephants in that they stayed in smaller
family groups, and Edmontosaurs were more like bison with huge herds
banding together for much the same reasons.

Well, enough speculation based on what little we know of behavior from the
fossil record.
Roger A. Stephenson
Assistant Director
The Grand River Museum
Lemmon, South Dakota
http://www.iw.net/~roger/
http://www.grandrivermuseum.org/
"Put the bunny, back in the box!"