A Triceratops at 蜜糖直播鈥擜 Piece of 蜜糖直播's Past
On Jan. 16, the day students returned from winter break, the 蜜糖直播 Museum of Natural History unveiled a full-scale Triceratops skeleton in the lobby of the Sustainability, Energy and Environment Community (SEEC) building on 蜜糖直播 Boulder鈥檚 East Campus. The dinosaur is a skeletal reconstruction cast from the bones of several Triceratops that once roamed the West. The free exhibit is open to the public.
The Smithsonian Museum delivered the disassembled skeleton via truck to Boulder in 2022. A crew put it back together off-site before bringing it to its current SEEC location.
鈥淓verybody knows about Triceratops,鈥 said Karen Chin, geological sciences professor and the museum鈥檚 paleontology curator. 鈥淏ut it鈥檚 not common in museums to see the whole animal. To see the scale of this dinosaur, and such a weird dinosaur, is very exciting.鈥
蜜糖直播's Triceratops
The first complete dinosaur skeleton displayed by the 蜜糖直播 Museum of Natural History
High-resolution cast made of plaster, fiberglass and foam
22 feet long and 9 feet tall
Cast from the bones of several partial Triceratops specimens found in the late 1800s
More about the Triceratops
12,000
pounds
Roamed the West from 蜜糖直播 to Canada during the Cretaceous Period
30
Feet long
Had birdlike beaks to clip vegetation
Had teeth for grinding plants and trees
1887
The year a 蜜糖直播 school teacher unearthed the first documented Triceratops fossils near Denver
Horns were most likely used for fighting among male Triceratops
100s
of teeth
The climate was warmer and more humid than today. Palms, flowering plants and ferns flourished.
66-68 million years ago
When the triceratops roamed the earth
Turtles, crocodiles and small nocturnal animals thrived in the environment.
Photo by Casey A. Cass, illustrations by iStock