Dinosaur - Triceratops - Natural History Museum

Postcard
• Picture / Image:  Triceratops
• Publisher:  Natural History Museum, London
• Postally used:  no
• Stamp:  n/a
• Postmark(s): n/a
• Sent to:  n/a
• Notes / condition: 

Please ask if you need any other information and I will do the best I can to answer.

Image may be low res for illustrative purposes - if you need a higher definition image then please contact me and I may be able to send one.

------------------------------------------------

Postage & Packing:

UK (incl. IOM, CI & BFPO): 99p

Europe: £1.60

Rest of world (inc. USA etc): £2.75

No additional charges for more than one postcard. You can buy as many postcards from me as you like and you will just pay the fee above once. (If buying postcards with other things such as books, please contact or wait for invoice before paying).

Payment Methods:

UK - PayPal, Cheque (from UK bank) or postal order

Outside UK: PayPal ONLY (unless otherwise stated) please.   NO non-UK currency checks or money orders (sorry).

NOTE: All postcards are sent in brand new stiffened envelopes which I have bought for the task. These are specially made to protect postcards and you may be able to re-use them. In addition there are other costs to sending so the above charge is not just for the stamp!

I will give a full refund if you are not fully satisfied with the postcard.

----------------------------------------------

Text from the free encyclopedia WIKIPEDIA may appear below to give a little background information (internal links may not  work) :

*************

Triceratops (/tra?'s?r?t?ps/ try-SERR-?-tops) is a genus of herbivorous ceratopsid dinosaur that lived during the late Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous Period, around 68 to 66 million years ago (Mya) in what is now North America. It was one of the last non-avian dinosaur genera to appear before the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event.^[1] The term Triceratops, which literally means ""three-horned face"", is derived from the Greek t??- (tri-) meaning ""three"", ???a? (kéras) meaning ""horn"", and ?? (ops) meaning ""face"".^[2][3]

Bearing a large bony frill and three horns on its large four-legged body, and conjuring similarities with the modern rhinoceros, Triceratops is one of the most recognizable of all dinosaurs and the best known ceratopsid. It shared the landscape with and was preyed upon by the fearsome Tyrannosaurus,^[4] though it is less certain that the two did battle in the manner often depicted in traditional museum displays and popular images.

The exact placement of the Triceratops genus within the ceratopsid group has been debated by paleontologists. Two species, T. horridus and T. prorsus, are considered valid although many other species have been named. Research published in 2010 suggests that the contemporaneous Torosaurus, a ceratopsid long regarded as a separate genus, represents Triceratops in its mature form,^[5][6] a view not accepted by everyone.^[7] A study published in 2012 by Daniel Field and Nicholas Longrich, researchers from Yale, would later disagree with this assertion upholding that the two should be classified as separate species.^[8][9]

Triceratops has been documented by numerous remains collected since the genus was first described in 1889, including at least one complete individual skeleton.^[10] Paleontologist John Scannella observed: ""It is hard to walk out into the Hell Creek Formation and not stumble upon a Triceratops weathering out of a hillside."" Forty-seven complete or partial skulls were discovered in just that area during the decade 2000–2010.^[11] Specimens representing life stages from hatchling to adult have been found.^[12]

The function of the frills and three distinctive facial horns has long inspired debate. Traditionally these have been viewed as defensive weapons against predators. More recent theories, noting the presence of blood vessels in the skull bones of ceratopsids, find it more probable that these features were primarily used in identification, courtship and dominance displays, much like the antlers and horns of modern reindeer, mountain goats, or rhinoceros beetles.^[13] The theory finds additional support if Torosaurus represents the mature form of Triceratops, as this would mean the frill also developed holes (fenestrae) as individuals reached maturity, rendering the structure more useful for display than defense.^[5]

Individual Triceratops are estimated to have reached about 7.9 to 9.0 m (26.0–29.5 ft) in length, 2.9 to 3.0 m (9.5–9.8 ft) in height,^[14][15] and 6.1–12.0 tonnes (13,000–26,000 lb) in weight.^[16] The most distinctive feature is their large skull, among the largest of all land animals. The largest known skull (specimen BYU 12183) is estimated to have been 2.5 metres (8.2 ft) in length when complete,^[5] and could reach almost a third of the length of the entire animal.^[12] It bore a single horn on the snout, above the nostrils, and a pair of horns approximately 1 m (3 ft) long, with one above each eye. To the rear of the skull was a relatively short, bony frill, adorned with epoccipitals in some specimens. Most other ceratopsids had large fenestrae in their frills, while those of Triceratops were noticeably solid.

The skin of Triceratops was unusual compared to other dinosaurs. Skin impressions from an as-yet undescribed specimen show that some species may have been covered in bristle-like structures, similar to the more primitive ceratopsian Psittacosaurus.^[17]

Triceratops species possessed a sturdy build, with strong limbs, short hands with three hooves each, and short feet with four hooves each.^[10] Although certainly quadrupedal, the posture of these dinosaurs has long been the subject of some debate. Originally, it was believed that the front legs of the animal had to be sprawling at angles from the thorax, in order to better bear the weight of the head.^[13] This stance can be seen in paintings by Charles Knight and Rudolph Zallinger. Ichnological evidence in the form of trackways from horned dinosaurs, and recent reconstructions of skeletons (both physical and digital) seem to show that Triceratops and other ceratopsids maintained an upright stance during normal locomotion, with the elbows flexed and slightly bowed out, in an intermediate state between fully upright and fully sprawling (as in the modern rhinoceros).^{[10][18][19][20]}

The hands and forearms of Triceratops retained a fairly primitive structure compared to other quadrupedal dinosaurs such as thyreophorans and many sauropods. In those two groups, the forelimbs of quadrupedal species were usually rotated so that the hands faced forward with palms backward (""pronated"") as the animals walked. Triceratops, like other ceratopsians and the related quadrupedal ornithopods, walked with most of their fingers pointing out and away from the body, the primitive condition for dinosaurs also retained by bipedal forms like the theropods. In Triceratops, the weight of the body was carried by only the first three fingers of the hand, while the third and fourth were vestigial and lacked claws or hooves.^[10] The phalangeal formula is 2-3-4-3-1, meaning that the innermost finger of the forelimb has two bones, the next has three, etc.^[21]

Triceratops is the best known genus of the Ceratopsidae, a family of large North American horned dinosaurs. The exact location of Triceratops among the ceratopsians has been debated over the years. Confusion stemmed mainly from the combination of short, solid frills (similar to that of Centrosaurinae), and the long brow horns (more akin to Ceratopsinae, also known as Chasmosaurinae). In the first overview of horned dinosaurs, R. S. Lull hypothesized two lineages, one of Monoclonius and Centrosaurus leading to Triceratops, the other with Ceratops and Torosaurus, making Triceratops a centrosaurine as the group is understood today.^[22] Later revisions supported this view, formally describing the first, short-frilled group as Centrosaurinae (including Triceratops), and the second, long-frilled group as Chasmosaurinae.^[23][24]

In 1949, C. M. Sternberg was the first to question this and favoured instead that Triceratops was more closely related to Arrhinoceratops and Chasmosaurus based on skull and horn features, making Triceratops a ceratopsine (chasmosaurine of his usage) genus.^[25] He was largely ignored, with John Ostrom,^[26] and later David Norman both placing Triceratops within Centrosaurinae.^[27]

Subsequent discoveries and analyses upheld Sternberg's view on the position of Triceratops, with Lehman defining both subfamilies in 1990 and diagnosing Triceratops as ceratopsine (chasmosaurine of his usage) on the basis of several morphological features. In fact, it fits well into the ceratopsine subfamily, apart from its one feature of a shortened frill.^[28] Further research by Peter Dodson, including a 1990 cladistic analysis^[29] and a 1993 study using RFTRA (resistant-fit theta-rho analysis),^[30] a morphometric technique which systematically measures similarities in skull shape, reinforces Triceratops' placement in the ceratopsine subfamily.

type=printed postcards

theme=animals

sub-theme=dinosaur

number of items=single

period=1945 - present

postage condition=unposted