[27] Greek--_treis_, three; _ceras_, horn; _ops_, face.
[28] This skeleton has not yet been set up in the Yale College Museum, but will be before long. Our artist has drawn it as if set up, with a man standing by for comparison. In an article in _The Californian Illustrated Magazine_ for April, 1892 (quoted in the _Review of Reviews_ for May), an American writer incorrectly describes this monster as "higher than Jumbo, and longer than two Jumbos placed in a row." But the article is altogether untrustworthy, and the two "restorations" are absurd.
[Illustration: Fig. 30.--Skeleton of _Triceratops prorsus_; length about 25 feet. (After Marsh.)]
In this Dinosaur we find the fore feet larger than usual in proportion to the hind limbs, and there can be no doubt that it walked on all fours. Its length was about twenty-five feet. All the vertebræ and limb-bones are solid. The brain was smaller in proportion to the skull than in any known vertebrate.
The teeth are remarkable in having two distinct roots. The wedge-like form of the skull is also very peculiar. The two large horns come immediately over the eyes, and the small one above the nose; this Dinosaur was, therefore, well provided with weapons of offence, such as would be highly useful in driving away or wounding carnivorous enemies. The back part of the skull rises up into a kind of huge crest, and this during life was protected by a special fringe of bony plates. Such an arrangement doubtless formed an effective shield to ward off blows when one Triceratops was fighting another, as bulls or buffaloes of the present day fight with their horns. The mouths of these Dinosaurs formed a kind of beak, sheathed in horn.
The body as well as the skull was protected, but the nature and position of the defensive parts in different forms cannot yet be determined with certainty. Various spines, bones, and plates have been found that evidently were meant for the protection of the creature's body, and belonged to the skin. Probably some of these were placed on the back, behind the crest of the skull; some may have defended the throat, as in Stegosaurus. Altogether, Triceratops is very different to any other Dinosaur. One cannot help picturing it rather as a fierce rhinoceros-like animal. In the restoration (Plate XI., Frontispiece) our artist has given it a thick skin, rather like that of the rhinoceros, only indicating small bony plates, etc., here and there.