BOULDER, Colo. — A full-scale, reconstructed Triceratops skeleton is now on display at the University of Colorado in Boulder (CU).
The skeleton, which first arrived in Boulder from Washington, D.C. in 2022, has been carefully reconstructed in the lobby of the Sustainable, Energy and Environment Community (SEEC) building on East Campus.
The skeleton is a composite of several partial Triceratops specimens found in Wyoming in the late 1800s. CU Boulder said scientists at the Smithsonian Museum assembled these fossils into a single composite skeleton and displayed it in 1905.
The Triceratops skeleton now on display is a high-resolution cast of that skeleton, made from plastic, fiberglass and foam.
Measuring 22 feet long and nine feet wide, the Triceratops is CU Museum of Natural History’s first dinosaur skeleton on display.
According to CU, Triceratops dinosaurs were herbivores that roamed Colorado during the Cretaceous Period, around 68 to 66 million years ago. They were found throughout the west, from Colorado to western Canada.
Triceratops skeleton at CU
"Everybody knows about Triceratops, but it's not common in museums to see the whole animal. To see the scale of this dinosaur, and such a weird dinosaur, is very exciting," said Karen Chin, professor in the Department of Geological sciences and curator of paleontology at the CU Museum.
"Museums want to exhibit complete skeletons, but the chances of finding a perfect, pristine skeleton of these kinds of animals are exceedingly small," said Jaelyn Eberle, CU Museum curator of fossil vertebrates and professor of geological sciences.
Students, staff and members of the public can view the exhibit for free on weekdays from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at the Sustainable, Energy and Environment Community (SEEC) building on CU Boulder's East Campus.
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