Dinosaur Central: Triceratops

Today, the focus was once again on dinosaurs... I read a book on one of the infamous dinosaurs... the Triceratops!

Triceratops
Usually, when we're introduced to dinosaurs, the Triceratops comes up... it's also one of the ones most seen in movies and books about the ancient reptiles. We get to know them by their three horns on their faces. In fact, the name "triceratops" has the meaning of "three-horned face". Makes sense, doesn't it?
Triceratops are part of a group of dinos called ceratopsians. "Ceratopsian" means "Horned-Faced". There's about 30 different kinds of ceratopsians, each with an unique number of horn-faces, and their frills. Yes, even the triceratops has a bony frill. It's around its head's back. While there are similarities, ceratopsians are very different... a different ceratopsian, the styracosaurus, looks very different from the triceratops!
Styracosauruses (sp?) had a lot more horns. Most of these horns were around the edge of its frill, which has two large heart-shape-like humps with hollow "valleys" within and two small "wing-humps" near its eyes' position, and its nose-horn is smaller than the triceratops. Triceratops have round frills, their two big horns above its eyes, and it has a pretty big nose-horn. Their skin were probably different colors too, but since we only have artists' interpretations to go on and none of us were in prehistoric times, none of us know for sure.
Triceratops were the largest ceratopsian ever, with a length of 30 feet (9 meters) and a height of 10 feet (3 meters). Believe it or not, its head was a long as its body was high... 10 feet (3 meters)! It was also the heaviest ceratopsian, weighed around 5 tons (4.5 t)! Yikes!
Paleontologists believe that the brain wasn't big, however. They guess that the Triceratops' brain was only about the size of a human's fist. The book says that Triceratops didn't have very sharp senses or smarts. The book also says that paleontologists also believe that the Triceratops weren't fast, mainly because of its body shape and size. Not a concern for eating plants (Triceratops are herbivores), but Triceratops were often prey to the T-Rex. The book says that Triceratops probably fought back, but couldn't win against the T-Rex.
Triceratops live in the late Cretaceous (book says the Cretaceous was 89-65 million years ago). They had different kinds of dino-neighbors, like the T-Rex and ankylosaurus (one of the armored dinos according to the book). They lived in areas that the Rockies cut through today... the U.S. states of Wyoming, South Dakota, Montana, Colorado, and Canada's provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta are listed in the book. The book says that the Rockies have a lot of sedimentary rock, which fossils are made of.
The book says scientists use fossils to figure out all they can about extinct animals by searching for clues in the fossils. Also, scientists use the geologic time system. This chops Earth-history into smaller bits.
Triceratops lived in heavily-forested areas. The books says that the climate was similar to modern tropical ones, and that the climate had been hot and humid, but was beginning to cool, and that North America's inner sea was beginning to dry up.