South Dakota: Triceratops (state fossil)
South Dakota: Triceratops (state fossil)
The "three-horned face" for which this dinosaur is named has made it popular with dinosaur lovers of all ages. Triceratops roamed the land that is now South Dakota near the end of the Cretaceous Period, some 68 - 65 million years ago, as the Western Interior Seaway that divided the continent was retreating to the south.
Triceratops was a member of the ceratopsian lineage of dinosaurs, which is characterized by a large frill at the back of the skull and a varying number of facial horns. Many different ceratopsians have been described, but of these, Triceratops is the best known and most familiar. It was a large, quadrupedal herbivore that fed on tough, low growing vegetation. Although a complete skeleton has never been found, many good skulls have been, and enough other bones of Triceratops are known for scientists to deduce that it was about 25 feet long and weighed around 5 tons. The horns may have been used to ward off predators, or for sexual display, like the antlers of deer.
The first Triceratops specimen was discovered in Wyoming in 1887. It was originally thought to be an extinct type of bison, and only later recognized as a dinosaur. Since that time, many other Triceratops fossils have been uncovered, primarily in the Hell Creek Formation in the Black Hills region of South Dakota, eastern Wyoming, and Montana.
Prior to 1988, the state fossil of South Dakota was the cycad, a type of palmlike Mesozoic plant known from Cycad National Monument near Minnekahta. However, illegal collecting destroyed the Monument, causing both the park and the cycad to lose their official status. In that year, the State Legislature decided to designate Triceratops the state fossil of South Dakota in the cycad's place.
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