COTA 753:
Animation Production
Sp 2003, Instructor: Maria Palazzi
Heather Caprette - Week One Report
How spread apart were the
fingers and toes of Triceratops Horridus?
And how much padding was on the feet?
Scientific Americans description of the fingers and toes explains
that they were all free. Below are two illustrations of ceratopsian feet from
the Scientific American Book of Dinosaurs.
Rhino foot compared to Triceratops foot:
Above: Rhino foot bones and rhino outer foot. Rhinos are walking
on their toes just like the Triceratops would have, but there is clearly a lot
of padding behind rhino toes.
Below are Triceratops Horridus foot bones from the New York Museum of Natural History, a sculpture of Triceratops from the Smithsonian, and the Burpee Museum of Natural History's model. Both show the front feet as being short and fat, but the Smithsonian sculpture as well as a sculpture in Orton Hall Geological Museum show the hind feet as having less padding behind the toes.
From Tony Thulborn's Dinosaur Tracks, 1990
From Thulborn's book, Triceratops walking speed: 3.36 to 3.71 km/h, and maximum
running speed: Baker (1975)- 45 km/h, Garland (1983) - 34 km/h, Thulborn (1982)
- 26 km/h.
Was the stance erect or semi-erect? It was definitely
not sprawled.