Triceratops

Two massive horns jutted over the eyes, sometimes growing longer than a metre — and no two Triceratops had exactly the same set. Like deer antlers today, they were probably used to show off and settle disputes. Some horn fossils even bear bite marks from T. rex, proof these weapons saw real action.

That huge bony shield at the back of the skull was solid bone — no holes or windows like many of its relatives had. Grooves in the fossil show blood vessels once ran across its surface, which means the frill might have flushed with colour for showing off, or helped the animal warm up and cool down.

A single shorter horn sat on the snout, and it changed shape as the animal grew up. Young Triceratops had a fairly large nose horn that curved backward, but in adults it became proportionally smaller and pointed more upward — a transformation scientists have tracked across fossils of different ages.

The front of the mouth ended in a deep, parrot-like beak perfect for snipping tough plants. Further back, hundreds of teeth were stacked together in rows that replaced themselves as they wore down — one of the best veggie-shredding systems of the dinosaur age. Scratch marks on the teeth show Triceratops chomped through seriously tough stuff like palms and cycads.

Old drawings showed Triceratops with front legs sprawled out like a lizard, but trackways and bone studies tell a different story. The elbows were only slightly angled out, holding the body in a sturdy, semi-upright pose — essential for carrying that enormous head, which made up about a third of its total weight.