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RE: What are some differences between Triceratops sp.
> From: owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu [mailto:owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu]
> On Behalf Of KYLE GUISER
>
> Can I please get some help on the differences between
> Triceratops prorsus and Triceratops horridus? Anything will
> be great 0_o
>
Forster's 1996 diagnosis for _T. prorsus_ was:
Frontal fontanelle absent, supraorbital horns relatively short with horn
length/basal skull length of 0.61 or less, rostrum relatively deep and shrot
with convexly rounded rostral margin.
In her study, _T. horridus_ was a "metataxon": it had all the traits shared
by _T. horridus_ and _T. prorsus_ but none of its own.
I think, however, based on the ongoing ontogenetic work by Horner and
colleagues that these will be found as different growth stages of the same
species (_T. horridus_).
And I'm not sanguine about _Diceratops hatcheri_'s taxonomic future as a
separate species, either...
Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
Email: tholtz@umd.edu Phone: 301-405-4084
Office: Centreville 1216
Senior Lecturer, Vertebrate Paleontology
Dept. of Geology, University of Maryland
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/
Fax: 301-314-9661
Faculty Director, Earth, Life & Time Program, College Park Scholars
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~jmerck/eltsite/
Fax: 301-405-0796
Mailing Address: Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
Department of Geology
Building 237, Room 1117
University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742 USA