118 EXTINCT MONSTERS. 
of fresh-water or brackish origin, and can now be traced for nearly 
eight hundred miles along the east flank of the Rocky Mountains. 
In this Dinosaur we find the fore feet larger than usual in 
proportion to the hind limbs, and there can be no doubt that it 
walked on all fours. Its length was about twenty-five feet. All 
the vertebree and limb-bones are solid. The brain was smaller 
in proportion to the skull than in any known vertebrate. 
The teeth are remarkable in having two distinct roots. The 
wedge-like form of the skull is also very peculiar. The two large 
horns come immediately over the eyes, and the small one above 
the nose; this Dinosaur was, therefore, well provided with 
weapons of offence, such as would be highly useful in driving 
away or wounding carnivorous enemies. The back part of the 
skull rises up into a kind of huge crest, and this during life was 
protected by a special fringe of bony plates. Such an arrange- 
ment doubtless formed an effective shield to ward off blows when 
one Triceratops was fighting another, as bulls or buffaloes of the 
present day fight with their horns. The mouths of these Dinosaurs 
formed a kind of beak, sheathed in horn. . 
The body as well as the skull was protected, but the nature 
and position of the defensive parts in different forms cannot yet 
be determined with certainty. Various spines, bones, and plates 
have been found that evidently were meant for the protection of 
the creature’s body, and belonged to the skin. Probably some of 
these were placed on the back, behind the crest of the skull; 
some may have defended the throat, as in Stegosaurus. Alto- 
gether, Triceratops is very different to any other Dinosaur. One 
cannot help picturing it rather as a fierce rhinoceros-like animal. 
In the restoration (Plate XI., Frontispiece) our artist has given it a 
thick skin, rather like that of the rhinoceros, only indicating 
small bony plates, etc., here and there. 
Professor Marsh thinks that as the head increased in size te 
bear its armour of bony plates, the neck first, then the fore feet, 
and then the whole skeleton was specially modified to support 
