"Study discovers that Triceratops and Torosaurus were different stages of the same dinosaur"
It turns out that John Scanella, postgraduate student of the Montana State University (MSU), and Jack Horner, paleontologist very well recognized in the scientific scene, have published a study that states that Triceratops, one of the most famous dinosaurs of the world (maybe as much as its contemporary, the Tyrannosaurus rex) was nothing but a juvenile form of the animal known until now as Torosaurus, a reptile quite more anonymous in the popular imaginary.
Proposal of Scanella and Horner about the juvenile (izq.) and adult (right) appearences of the Triceratops face, formerly assigned to adult specimens of Triceratops and Torosaurus, respectively. Original image available at Physorg.com
Getting aknowledge about this story, published in the July 14th edition of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology magazine of the The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, made me feel something like when I first saw the "Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back" scene in which Luke Skywalker discovers that Darth Vader is his father.Well, maybe I'm exagerating, but I was truly astonished and felt my interest in science journalism renewed.
Back to topic, the most immediate consequence of this study is that the genus "Torosaurus" will disappear from the scientific texts and the name "Triceratops" will prevail, as this term was coined first and, in situations like this, the first in line is the only one to stay (as has happened before with the denomination "Brontosaurus").
However, this discovery has more profound implications. If the affirmation of Scanella and Horner is true, it will become one more proof to support the theory that the biodiversity of the dinosaurs was, by the end of the Cretaceous, less more than was thought some years ago.
In other words, the dinosaurs may have been already on their way to extinction by the time the asteroid that created the Chicxulub crater impacted the Eartch about 65 million years ago. This celestial clash is considered as one of the most possible causes of the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event, which meant the end of the Mesozoic Era (popularly known as the Age of Reptiles or the Age of Dinosaurs) and the beginning of the Cenozoic Era, also called the Age of Mammals, within which we still live.
Proposal of Scanella and Horner about the juvenile (izq.) and adult (right) appearences of the Triceratops face, formerly assigned to adult specimens of Triceratops and Torosaurus, respectively. Original image available at Physorg.com
Getting aknowledge about this story, published in the July 14th edition of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology magazine of the The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, made me feel something like when I first saw the "Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back" scene in which Luke Skywalker discovers that Darth Vader is his father.Well, maybe I'm exagerating, but I was truly astonished and felt my interest in science journalism renewed.
Back to topic, the most immediate consequence of this study is that the genus "Torosaurus" will disappear from the scientific texts and the name "Triceratops" will prevail, as this term was coined first and, in situations like this, the first in line is the only one to stay (as has happened before with the denomination "Brontosaurus").
However, this discovery has more profound implications. If the affirmation of Scanella and Horner is true, it will become one more proof to support the theory that the biodiversity of the dinosaurs was, by the end of the Cretaceous, less more than was thought some years ago.
In other words, the dinosaurs may have been already on their way to extinction by the time the asteroid that created the Chicxulub crater impacted the Eartch about 65 million years ago. This celestial clash is considered as one of the most possible causes of the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event, which meant the end of the Mesozoic Era (popularly known as the Age of Reptiles or the Age of Dinosaurs) and the beginning of the Cenozoic Era, also called the Age of Mammals, within which we still live.
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