Triceratops Fossil Skin Replica

$11.00

The skin is very different than what many paleontologists thought. The underside of the animal is covered in scutes, similar to a crocodile. The rest of the dinosaur is covered in small scales. However, there are also irregular scale like shapes.

Description

Triceratops Fossil Skin Replica measures 5.4 inches. Triceratops Fossil Skin Replica is museum quality polyurethane resin cast. Made in USA. Our precise replica can be used as a teaching tool, museum exhibit, home décor, or office décor.

Triceratops or T. horridus had a large skull relative to its body size. The front of the head was equipped with a high toothless beak. The core of the top beak was formed by a special rostral bone. Behind it, the premaxillae bones were located, embayed from behind by very large circular nostrils.

Triceratops or T. horridus differs from most relatives in that this process was hollowed out on the outer side. Behind the toothless premaxilla, the maxilla bore thirty-six to forty tooth positions, in which three to five teeth per position were vertically stacked. The teeth were closely appressed, forming a “dental battery” curving to the inside. The skull bore a single horn on the snout, above the nostrils.

In Triceratops or T. horridus, the nose horn is sometimes recognizable as a separate ossification, the epinasal. The skull also featured a pair of “brow” or supraorbital horns approximately 1 m (3.3 ft.) long, with one above each eye. The jugal bones pointed to below at the rear sides of the skull and were capped by separate epijugals. With Triceratops these were not particularly large and sometimes touched the quadratojugals. The bones of the skull roof were fused. By a folding of the frontal bones, a “double” skull roof was created. In Triceratops, some specimens show a fontanelle, an opening in the upper roof layer. The cavity between the layers invaded the bone cores of the brow horns.

At the rear of the skull, the outer squamosal bones and the inner parietal bones grew into a relatively short, bony frill, adorned with epoccipitals in young specimens. These were low triangular processes on the frill edge, representing separate skin ossifications or osteoderms.

Typically, with Triceratops or T. horridus specimens there are two epoccipitals present on each parietal bone, with an additional central process on their border. Each squamosal bone had five processes.

Most other ceratopsids had large parietal fenestrae, openings, in their frills, but those of Triceratops were noticeably solid, unless the genus Torosaurus represents mature Triceratops individuals. Under the frill, at the rear of the skull, a huge occipital condyle, up to 106 millimeters in diameter, connected the head to the neck.

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Additional information

Dimensions 5.4 × 3.6 × .7 in
Triceratops Facts

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Order: †Ornithischia
Family: †Ceratopsidae
Scientific name: triceratops-horridus
Subfamily: †Chasmosaurinae
Tribe: †Triceratopsini
Genus: †Triceratops
Type species: †Triceratops horridus