REPTILE RECONSTRUCTION — GILMORE. 2*73 



tory, New York, which has been so well described by Professor 

 Osborn, and which has considerable portions of the skin areas pre- 

 served. 



There lived at the same time with the Trachodon described above 

 the horned dinosaur (Triceratops) , the largest headed land animal 

 the world has ever known. In plate 2 is shown a skeleton of one 

 of these animals in the United States National Museum, mounted in 

 1904, and to this day the only skeleton of Triceratops in the world 

 to be thus exhibited. It is known as a composite skeleton — that is, 

 made up of the bones of more than one specimen, though the greater 

 part of the skeleton pertains to one individual. These specimens 

 were collected by the late J. B. Hatcher in the northern part of 

 Niobrara County, Wyoming, a region from which he obtained the 

 skulls and other skeletal parts of more than 40 individuals. 



From the tip of the beak to the end of the tail, the Triceratops 

 is 19 feet 8 inches in length, and in front of the hips is 8 feet 2 

 inches in height. The skull is 6 feet long, or nearly one-third the 

 total length of the animal, and it is not an exceptionally large one, 

 for skulls are known that measure 9 feet in length. Although the 

 largest headed dinosaur, the brain of this creature is relatively 

 smaller than in any known animal when the great size of the skull 

 is taken into consideration. 



That Triceratops was a fighter and often engaged in combat ap- 

 pears to be shown by the broken bones that are frequently found 

 which have healed in life. A pair of horn cores in the National 

 Museum bear mute witness to such an encounter. That one was 

 broken off in life is evident from the fact that the stump had 

 rounded over and healed, while the size of the remaining horn 

 shows the animal to have reached a ripe old age. 



The feeding habits of Triceratops were manifestly plant eating, 

 as indicated by the tooth structure, the food probably being leaves 

 and branches of low trees and shrubs. Hatcher 1 has pictured this 

 country at the time these animals lived as being made up of vast 

 swamps with wide watercourses that were constantly shifting their 

 channels, the whole presenting an appearance similar to that which 

 now exists in the interior of the Everglades of Florida. The entire 

 region, where the waters were not too deep, was covered by an 

 abundant vegetation and inhabited by these huge dinosaurs, as well 

 as by the smaller crocodiles, alligators, turtles, and diminutive 

 mammals, all of whose fossil remains are now found embedded in 

 the deposits of that geological period. 



The life appearance of Triceratops has been depicted by numerous 

 paintings and several model restorations. In all of these the skin 

 has been shown as smooth and leathery, but the discovery in recent 



1 The Ceratopsia, Monog. U. S. G. S., vol. 49, 190T, p. 194. 



