TRICERATOPS NOSE HORN
Triceratops horridus
Late Cretaceous, Maastrichtian stage
Hell Creek Formation, South Dakota, USA
The Triceratops is undoubtedly one of the world's best-known and most popular dinosaurs, due in part to its distinctive three-horned skull and flared bony frill. Although fearsome in appearance, these horns were long-considered to serve a primarily defensive function; recent scholarship, however, has suggested usage much like the antlers of the reindeer or the rhinoceros beetle, for rituals of display and courtship. This is not one of the long brow horns, but the more compact and hefty nose horn, with a wonderfully rugose texture and sandy patina, attractively streaked with brown around the base, and a fascinating root section with a large area of open-ended tubules, approximately 8 x 5 1/2 x 4 1/2 inches overall.