What are the characteristics of Triceratops?

Triceratops' neck shield is a complete bone plate without any holes, which can protect its neck from being bitten by carnivorous dinosaurs. Triceratops may have bright patterns on its neck guard. Triceratops was once divided into more than 13 species because of the different neck shield fossils, but recent research shows that these different species are caused by differences between male and female individuals or different growth stages. The decoration on the edge of triceratops' neck shield also changes with age. When I was a teenager, an arrow-shaped triangular bone grew on the edge of the cervical shield. With the increase of age, these arrow-shaped edges flatten out and are almost invisible in adulthood. Many dinosaurs called Ceratosaurus or Polyceratosaurus were actually Triceratops. Similarly, the angle of Triceratops also has the same individual differences. The horn of the little dinosaur is only about 2.5 cm long. With the increase of dinosaur age, the horn will become longer and curved, backward in youth, straight in youth, and finally become the permanent shape of the horn of adult Triceratops. Some experts believe that the neck shield of male Triceratops may be colorful when he is alive to attract females; Male triceratops will also compete for the position of leader. It's a pity that we can't go to the back to the prehistoric world, otherwise we can see the female struggle of Triceratops and realize how fierce the competition for survival is. Triceratops inherited the parrot-like mouth of its ancestors and had a horny beak, which is one of the biggest characteristics of Ceratosaurus. It can easily bite and chew all kinds of plants. In addition, its mouth has another use, that is, digging holes, that is, digging out the roots of underground plants or assisting in digging limbs when laying eggs. Triceratops' teeth are also hard and covered with enamel, which is very suitable for cutting off the branches and leaves of plants. Its teeth will also wear out and be replaced by new teeth, which is a bit like hadrosaurs. But the difference is that Triceratops' teeth don't have the function of crushing and grinding like hadrosaurs. Its teeth are used for cutting, so it has a strong beak-like protrusion, so that the shear force can be transferred to the beak and teeth, and the leaves of palm and cycad can be cut. Ostrom, a famous American dinosaur expert, once made a systematic mechanical study on the chewing way of Triceratops, and deeply felt that Triceratops' eating way was very wonderful. There is another research theory about the chewing way of Triceratops: cheek theory. A professor named Whitman studied a paleontologist's hypothesis that Triceratops' cheeks were like cows, horses and humans today. Former paleontologists thought that the function of cheeks was to hold food so that dinosaurs could chew or chew food. But in contrast, Whitman thinks that animals with cheeks are generally supported by bones, while Triceratops has no cheeks supported by bones. Therefore, Whitman suggested that the facial morphology of Triceratops was actually more similar to the beak of birds. It is likely that it chewed off the tender leaves from plants with this sharp beak, and then swallowed the whole piece into the stomach without chewing, and completed the chewing process in the stomach.