A Triceratops that died 67 million years ago left behind a complete skeleton that is among the most intact ever found. The fossil, which is 85% complete, made its public debut on March 12 at the Melbourne Museum in Australia in the new exhibit Triceratops: Fate of the Dinosaurs.
Horridus was a plant-eating dinosaur that lived during the period of the Dinosaurs that ended 66 million years ago. The fossil weighs more than 2,200 pounds and contains more than 260 bones. It stands over 6 feet tall and is nearly 23 feet long.
The skull is 98% complete and has two slender horns at the brow. The skull is about 575 pounds and the neck frill is about 1.5 m. Museums Victoria, the Australian organization that operates three state-owned museums in Melbourne, acquired the specimen in 2020 after it was discovered on private land in Montana.
Images of Triceratops' ancestors are related.
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Horridus was in pieces in eight crates, some of which were car-size. The bones were measured, labeled and 3D scanned before the skeleton was assembled. Horridus is one of the few Triceratops skeletons made from bones from one individual animal.
Fitzgerald said in the 2020 statement that the fossil was the "Rosetta Stone for understandingceratops."
Horridus is standing in a chamber with projections. It is not certain if Horridus was male or female, but there is a lot that researchers can learn from its skeleton.
He said that the fossil will be accessible to science for generations to come.
You can see Horridus in person at the museum, but if you are too far away you can use an interactive 3D digital model.
It was originally published on Live Science.
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