Triceratops
Late Cretaceous, about 66 million years ago
The star of the dinosaur hall is a Triceratops lying on its side in the position in which it was found, a rare and valuable way to display a fossil. Most museum dinosaurs are assembled from many individuals and mounted upright; this one is among the most complete Triceratops skeletons ever discovered, and the museum has chosen to show the bones as the animal died, with the huge frilled skull and its three horns at one end and the thick limb bones and tail curving away from it. A standing reconstruction nearby lets you compare the two.
Look first at the skull, which makes up almost a third of the animal's length. The two brow horns are over a metre long and the bony frill behind them, once thought to be armour, was probably used for display and recognition, like a peacock's tail. The beak at the front, shaped like a parrot's, cropped tough plants that were then sliced by batteries of teeth further back in the jaw. Notice the sturdy pillar like legs and the shorter, splayed forelimbs, and the size of the rib cage, which housed a digestive system big enough to process low quality vegetation all day.
Triceratops lived in western North America at the very end of the Cretaceous, sharing its world with Tyrannosaurus, which crouches in the same hall, and both vanished in the extinction sixty six million years ago. This specimen was excavated in the United States and acquired by the museum for the opening of the Global Gallery's dinosaur floor. It is a favourite with Japanese children, and the hall around it is arranged so that you can look at the skeletons from above, from the side and from below.
Did You Know? The skeleton is displayed lying on its side as it was found in the rock, which is unusual for a museum dinosaur and shows the real position of the bones.
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