Animal Crossing Triceratops
In the last days, I was very ill; as I could not make physical effort, I was playing Animal Crossing New Horizons in a relaxed way. Then, while I was in the Blathers Museum, I thought it would be a good idea to dedicate a blog to a dinosaur from the game explaining why of each detail; I choose the famous Triceratops horridus.
How to explain Blathers in the dinosaur description: The Triceratops is a herbivorous dinosaur and “Well prepared for the combat”; he was extraordinarily heavy, whereby can charge with a great punch using his cups that, actuality, are the meaning of his gender name “Triceratops”, while the species name (horridus) alludes to rigor of the triceratops skull. It is necessary to clear out for Triceratops two species meet: Triceratops horridus y Triceratops porsus being the first, the type species.
The Triceratops fossils from to 68 and 66 million years ago, whereby could consider was of the last dinosaurs (not counting the birds) that lived to see the drop of meteorite of Chicxulub (The extinction of dinosaurs). How to see in the picture 2; Triceratops it’s found together with others iconic dinosaurs as the Tyranosarus rex, both lived in the same time. This suggests the Triceratops fossils not only help to discover details of his specie, but they help for knowledge details about to others dinosaurs. Steve Brusatte says the example of the find pelvis a Triceratops horridus with the Tyranosaurus rex bite; thanks to works and comparative it was concluded that Tyranosaurus rex bite has weight of 13400 Newtons, a fact amazing in compared with the maximum weight of molars bite (of human) that is barely 825 Newtons.
Brief history of discovery
The Triceratops horridus specie was discovery during the “Bone wars” in the year 1887 in Denver, Colorado for Othniel Marsh; in the first instance, Marsh thought it were bison bones, but as he studied other specimens, he concluded that was it about a new dinosaur. Finally, the specie was described in 1889 and one year later, the same Marsh described Triceratops porsus.
Debate with Torosaurus
For years exists a complicated debate, for knowledge if the specimen of Torosaurus latus (Also discovered by Marsh) actually it is a Triceratops fossil of advance age. In the doctoral thesis of John B. Scannella and John R. Horner, it was discovered through approach investigation that both dinosaurs actually are the same gender, but Torosaurus is a phase advance age of Triceratops. Also, there are people that defends the idea that both genders are different, saying that Torosaurus has a characteristics holes in his bone necklace (Triceratops not has); however, in my opinion the thesis of Scannella and Horner is more reliable.
Own Characteristics
As said before, Triceratops is characterized for his three horns and his defend; however, there are others features that differentiate of others species. Naked eye, in the picture 4, it can be seen his “beak” is very similar to such as parrot, it was useful for his herbivore diet; another less obvious detail is in its horns who have the ability to grow with the dinosaur age, in the case of younger Triceratops, they barely had “lumps” sticking out of his skulls. Besides that, this younger specimens had a short spikes called “epoccipitals” surrounding his skull, how to see in the picture 4. A very important detail of this dinosaur is in his pelvic hip, how to see in the picture 5; the isquion bone is in the same direction that pubis bone; I highlight the importance of pelvic hip because is evidence that Triceratops belonged to the group of Ornithischia dinosaurs (one of the two greats groups in which it was divided Dinosauria).
Conclusion
Animal Crossing is more than a video game; it has taken care of every detail in respect to his fossils that the Blathers Museum can be considered like a real museum from which you can learn, provoking the curious gamer to know more details about the creatures. Also is an important considered that I only speaker of fossils (Specifically of Triceratops): insects, fish and artworks, I don’t argue only because not is my topic, but some expert that careful observes the museum, may realize of the excellent work.
Reference
Brusatte, S. (2019). The Rise and Fall or the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World (1.a ed.). DEBATE.
Forster, C. A. (1996). «Species resolution in Triceratops: cladistic and morphometric approaches». Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology
Hatcher, J. B., Marsh, O. C. and Lull, R. S. (1907) The Ceratopsia. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. ISBN 0–405–12713–8.
John B. Scannella & John R. Horner (2010) Torosaurus Marsh, 1891, is TriceratopsMarsh, 1889 (Ceratopsidae: Chasmosaurinae): synonymy through ontogeny, Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 30:4, 1157–1168, DOI: 10.1080/02724634.2010.483632
Parker, S. (2016). Evolución Toda la Historia (1.a ed.). BLUME.
Pim, K., Horner, J., & Pastori, F. (2016). Dinosaurs The Grand Tour. The experiment.
Annexes
Screenshots taken of Animal Crossing New Horizons, video game created by Nintendo.
