For over a century, the Triceratops dinosaur has been beloved by both children and adults. Now the existance of the Triceratops is in question based on new studies by John Scannella and Jack Horner. Their study states that Triceratops are actually juveniles of another ceratopsian dinosaur, the Torosaurus, and that their skulls change shape as they age.
The study was written by John Scannella and Jack Horner of the Museum of the Rockies and published in the July 2010 issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. The study is a culmination of 10 years of research and examinations of over 30 Triceratops skulls and numerous Torosaurus skulls. The study shows that there is a clear transition from a Triceratops skull into a Torosaurus skull.
Both Triceratops and Torosaurs are found in the same region and age, but Torosaurs were always larger than Triceratops and had different horns and frills. The research suggests that parts of the Triceratops skull were spongy and never hardened into solid bone; morphing over time into the more elaborate Torosaurus skull as the Triceratops aged. This essentially means that all Triceratops are juvenile Torosaurs; thus reducing the number of species found in the late Cretaceous.
However, the Torosaurus is likely to be the name that will be dismissed, with all current Torosaurus skulls being relabeled as Triceratops. Essentially Triceratops were really all Torosaurs, but the Torosaurus will no longer exist as a genus for classification purposes.
The Torosaur may not be the only shape-shifting dinosaur from the late Cretaceous; several other species have recently been suggested to be juvenile versions of well-known adult dinosaurs. Two spike-headed dinosaurs called Draconex and the Stygimoloch are likely to be juvenile Pachycephalosaurs. There is also great debate on whether or not the dinosaur nanotyrannus is a juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex.
The new study is controversial because both the Triceratops and Torosaurus have been studied for over a century. There will be much debate further on, but the researchers intend to relabel Torosaurs as Triceratops.
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