First Pluto, now this. So long, childhood... http://gizmodo.com/5601514/the-tric...-actually-a-young-version-of-another-dinosaur Scientists are saying that the Triceratops dinosaur—you know, the three horned one—was actually a juvenile form of a Torosaurus, the three horned dinosaur you don't know. Apparently, dinosaurs' skulls can shape-shift. The scientists, John Scannella and Jack Horner, believe that the Torosaurus and Triceratops are actually of the same species. According to the them, as a Triceratops aged, its horns and frill became more similar to that of a Torosaurus. Short becomes long, saw-edged becomes smoothed and so on. Having them be the same species would explain why there were never any young Torosaurus fossils discovered. The duo say there is a clear transition from triceratops into torosaurus as the animals grow older. For example, the oldest specimens of triceratops show a marked thinning of the bone where torosaurus has holes, suggesting they are in the process of becoming fenestrated Scientists sure enjoy crushing my childhood memory of The Land Before Time (they nixed Brontosaurus a while back). Hopefully they won't delete Triceratops too. [New Scientist via BoingBoing] Subtle differences I guess.... Torosaurus: Triceratops
I totally agree with you, but evidently that's not how the whole dinosaur naming thing works. This is the same reason we're stuck with the "Brontosaurus doesn't exist either" argument. (the guy that discovered the Brontosaurus also discovered the Apatosaurus, which later turned out to be the same species. He also put the wrong head on the Brontosaurus. Anyway, since the Apatosaurus was reported first, that's the "official" name)
This is earth-shattering news for me. Triceratops was always my favorite dinosaur for some reason, followed closely by the Stegosaurus.
Wait what did Brontosaurus turn out to be?? I think I read somewhere that the little raptors that attacked the T-Rex in Jurassic Park were actually prepubescent T-Rex's. So at least 3 of the dinosaurs featured in Jurassic Park (little raptors, brontosaurus, and triceratops) aren't what we thought they were. Who's next?
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The Brontosaurus is actually called the Apatosaurus. And actually I remember the criticism about the raptors in Jurrasic park was that they were too BIG, because none had been discovered that were that big. But shortly after the film came out they discovered the Utahraptor, which are supposed to be up to 23 feet long, so that "controversy" kind of resolved itself. Also, if I recall correctly, the big 4 legged dinosaurs in Jurrasic Park were actually Brachiosauruses.
Never has this video clip been more apt... <object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/iGwtvtwQssc&hl=en_US&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/iGwtvtwQssc&hl=en_US&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>
As long as he can still take down Trex, i'm not that dissapointed. The Triceratops' ability to take down a T-rex was what appealed to me the most.
