From Newcastle, Wyoming comes fascinating news about the discovery of the remains of three triceratops dating to 67 million years ago, which is the Late Cretaceous. Although much work and analysis needs to be done, the preliminary word is that three individuals were found together, which is not particularly common. What’s more, two of them may be juveniles. If so, this find may shed more light on their social organization, as well as their growth and development.
Even better, it seems that the skeletons may be unusually complete. The presence of many small bones is terrific, given that smaller bones are not nearly as prevalent in the fossil record as larger and thicker bones. The small bones can get washed away more readily, or deteriorate before they can be fossilized. Also, small bones may be consumed by predators.
So hats off to Dr. Pete Larson, paleontologist and president of the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research and to Dr. Anne Schulp of the Naturalis Biodiversity Center.