Triceratops Facts for Kids
try-SAIR-uh-tops · its name means “three-horned face”
A plant-eater with three horns and a big bony frill.
- 📏 30 ft9.1 m1 long
- ⚖️ 6 to 12 tons5.4 to 11 tonnes1
- 🕰️ 66 to 68 million years ago66 to 68 million years ago1
- 🍽️ plants
Triceratops had three horns on its face. A big shield of bone stood up behind its head. It ate plants.
Triceratops had two long horns above its eyes, a short one on its nose, and a wide bony frill at the back of its head. It had a beak like a parrot's to snip tough plants. It walked on four strong legs.
Triceratops lived at the same time and in the same places as T. rex. Scientists think its horns and frill may have helped it show off, recognise its own kind, and defend itself. Its many teeth were packed in rows, and new ones grew in as old ones wore down.
Every dinosaur number is scientists’ best guess from bones, so each one says where it came from.
How big was Triceratops?
Triceratops in numbers
| Length (nose to tail) | 30 ft9.1 m1up to; scientists' estimate |
|---|---|
| Height at the hips | no checked number yet |
| Weight | 6 to 12 tons5.4 to 11 tonnes1scientists' estimate |
| When it lived | 66 to 68 million years ago66 to 68 million years ago1the Late Cretaceous |
| What it ate | low, tough plants such as ferns and palm-like cycads |
| Fossils found in | western North America, including North Dakota and Montana |
| What kind | a ceratopsian: a horned, frilled plant-eater |
Wow!
- Its name means three-horned face.
- It had a beak like a parrot's.
- New teeth kept growing in as old ones wore down.
🦴 Triceratops’s bones
Books about Triceratops, free at the library
Ask a grown-up to tap the button: it shows where to borrow a book about Triceratops for free.
Where was the land back then?
The continents were in different places when Triceratops lived, 66 to 68 million years ago. Open Planet Earth, pick Drifting continents, and slide back in time to see where the land was.
🦖 Ride a Trike in Dino DashThe game’s rare Frost Trike is a made-up version of this animal.
Its neighbours in time
Where these numbers come from
- USDA Forest Service, Dakota Prairie Grasslands: prehistoric animals, checked 30 October 2026.
- Wikidata, Triceratops (Q14384), checked 30 October 2026.
To read more: the Natural History Museum’s Dino Directory (see also, not copied).