Torosaurus

Torosaurus

This Torosaurus skeleton is the largest horned dinosaur ever discovered in the world

The Torosaurus had a weight of 6.5 - 7 tons, which is twice as much as a rhino. It has been named ‘Adam’.

Torosauruses are often compared to today’s rhinos as they share the same diet as plant-eaters, they had a strong body, facial horns and lived in social groups.

They lived in North America, where they wandered along the western coast of a large tropical sea called ‘Western Interior Seaway’, which divided the continent at that time. Tyrannosaurus rex lived in the same area, but it was dangerous for a Tyrannosaurus rex to hunt a Torosaurus because of its enormous body and facial horns, just as it is dangerous for a lion to hunt a rhino today.

This exact Torosaurus was found in what is today New Mexico, US. It is one of the best-preserved Torosauruses skeletons ever found. You can see which skeleton bones are real on the bone-map in the gallery. The orange-highlighted bones indicate which is real.

It took more than a year to excavate it and it took two years to prepare it in the laboratory.

The skull of the Torosaurus ‘Adam’ is kept in its own display case. It is one of the most well-preserved Torosaurus skulls in the world. Only the horns and parts of the right side are missing. The horns have been reconstructed to show how big they were.

The skull is 3 meters long. That makes it the largest skull any land-living animal has ever had. To put it in comparison, the skull is three times larger than the skull of an elephant. You can see the bone-map of the skull in the gallery.

Learn more about the museum in the video below.