The Origins of Triceratops Were Never What We Thought — Ancient DNA Finally Revealed The Truth

In 2010, two paleontologists at Montana State University published a paper arguing that Torosaurus — a large ceratopsid dinosaur recognized as a separate genus since 1891 — did not actually exist. What paleontologists had been calling Torosaurus for over a century was, they argued, simply an old Triceratops. As Triceratops aged, the solid bone of its frill gradually opened into the large holes seen in Torosaurus skulls, and the shape of the head changed so dramatically between juvenile and adult that the two growth stages had been mistaken for two different animals. The paper sparked one of the most intense debates in recent dinosaur paleontology — and pointed to something that had been underappreciated: the biology hidden in Triceratops bones is far richer and stranger than the textbook image of three horns and a bony frill suggests. No Triceratops DNA has ever been recovered. At 68 million years old, the genetic material is gone by the same margin that makes T. rex and Velociraptor unsequenceable. But soft tissue preserved inside ceratopsid bone has been studied since Mary Schweitzer's work on dinosaur protein preservation, and the results have added molecular detail to what the fossils were already showing. This video covers: the Torosaurus controversy, why there is no DNA, what protein analysis of ceratopsid bone has shown, where Triceratops actually came from, what the horns were really for, why Triceratops was not a grazer, and what the frill was doing. Key Studies Referenced: • Marsh (1889). Notice of new American Dinosauria. American Journal of Science. • Scannella & Horner (2010). Torosaurus Marsh, 1891, is Triceratops Marsh, 1889. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. • Longrich & Field (2012). Torosaurus is not Triceratops. PLOS ONE. • Farke et al. (2009). Evidence of combat in Triceratops. PLOS ONE. • Schweitzer et al. (2013). Molecular analyses of dinosaur osteocytes. Bone. • Mallon & Anderson (2013). Skull ecomorphology of megaherbivorous dinosaurs. PLOS ONE. • Horner & Goodwin (2006). Major cranial changes during Triceratops ontogeny. Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Subscribe — new discoveries about lost species posted every few days. #Triceratops #Dinosaurs #Paleontology #LostSpecies #AncientDNA