according to a New Scientist article, the triceratops never really existed as its own species of dinosaur, but was actually just the adolescent version of the lesser-known torosaurus, a species previously believed to have been closely related to the triceratops. paleontologists at the Museum of the Rockies (apparently not a cultural institution dedicated to Stallone’s boxing films) have concluded that the triceratop’s characteristic frill was actually just spongy tissue that in later life would harden to a skull, ergo the torosaurus.
i find this new revelation to be very upsetting for many reasons, chief amongst them being that the triceratops song was the only one i could ever remember when we were learning about dinosaurs in the first grade. because of the tenacity of the rhyme, the triceratops has always been my spirit animal (yes, i realize i just said that) even though it’s been extinct for thousands of years and is ugly and unwieldy as hell. upon closer inspection, how apt for me! why, of all the songs we sang about the dinosaurs did this one stick with me for well over 25 years?? i can only believe that the spirit of the triceratops lives on inside me, occasionally jabbing the inside of my ribs when i eat something too spicy or forget to hydrate enough.
the good news is that when everything is finalized and the “two” dinosaurs are concluded to be one, the species will still go by the name of triceratops, which means i can still recite my triceratops song (to myself) and know that not all of it is now obsolete. in honor of my spirit animal, revised by paleohistory, i give you “The Triceratops Song:”
“Triceratops with three long horns,
a beak like a parrot and a frill where his neck is;
Triceratops with three long horns,
And a tail innnnn back!”
I’ll always love you, frill or no frill, triceratops!
read the full article here.