One Of The Most Complete Triceratops Skeletons In The World

The skeleton is over 85% intact and includes a near-complete skull and spine.

Transcript

00:00 Today I'm bringing you a little story about a Triceratops skeleton.

00:06 A massive Triceratops that died 67 million years ago left behind a skeleton that is among

00:11 the most complete ever found.

00:13 It contains about 85% of the original bones, including a near-intact skull and spine.

00:20 Nicknamed Horridus after the species name, Triceratops horridus, the fossil recently

00:25 made its public debut at Melbourne Museum in Australia.

00:29 Horridus was an herbivore, or plant-eating dinosaur, and it lived during the Cretaceous

00:33 period.

00:34 The fossil contains more than 260 bones, weighs more than 2,200 pounds, and measures nearly

00:41 23 feet long and over 6.6 feet tall.

00:46 The fossil was discovered on private land in Montana in 2014, and Museums Victoria acquired

00:51 the specimen in 2020.

00:53 When Horridus arrived in Melbourne, it was in pieces in eight crates, some of which were

00:58 car-size.

00:59 Fossil preparers measured, labeled, and 3D scanned each bone before the skeleton was

01:04 assembled for display.

01:07 While many articulated Triceratops skeletons are exhibited around the world, only Horridus

01:12 and a handful of others are made of bones that came from one individual animal.

01:17 You can see Horridus in person at Melbourne Museum, but if that's too far away, you can

01:21 still examine the massive dinosaur's bones using an interactive 3D digital model on the

01:27 museum's website.

01:28 [music]

01:48 (music)