Triceratops horridus roamed northwestern North America 65-70 million years ago when the climate was warmer and wetter. This sculpture was cast, using 3-D modeling based on computer scans, from the original skull of a triceratops in the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History’s Dinosaur Hall. Fierce as he looks, he was a herbivore.
August 24, 2006 at 9:20 am
I don’t recall ever seeing this. It is quite a cool sculpture!
August 24, 2006 at 9:29 am
Wouldn’t want to meet one of those in a dark alley. I love the Latin name, especially the horridus part!
August 24, 2006 at 3:27 pm
Look at his teeth! He’s just a giant cow! Great photo.
August 29, 2006 at 10:10 am
When I was a kid, there was a large green fiberglass Triceratops outside the natural history museum. My brother and sister and I used to love to climb it during our summer trips to DC (visiting family & such)… and I was so disappointed when I returned as an adult and found it gone.
Looking back, I suppose it was sort of tacky and historically inaccurate – but what a fun thing to play on!
August 29, 2006 at 10:33 am
Dan —
I remember it. It was known as “Uncle Beasley.” Many years ago, I photographed a bunch of kids playing on Uncle B. for an ESL textbook on Washington, DC. I, too, was disappointed when I looked for it several weeks ago and found it gone.
September 2, 2006 at 12:43 pm
I love it. Great photo.
September 23, 2006 at 12:05 am
The life-sized Triceratops was moved to the Woodley Park Zoo in DC some years ago
where it sits way out of reach of children. My wife had worked for an
engineering company that supervised the placement of Uncle Beasley to its
current home. I grew up as a child climbing on Uncle Beasley while it sat
in front of the Smithsonian’s Museum of Natural History.
It had started my interest in dinosaurs and being a big fan of the
Triceratops. My own
son, age four, asked me to tell him a story about a pink Triceratops
named Harold. He had a dream about him the other night. The first thing
I thought about was old Uncle Beasley. I’m an artist by nature and
wanted to use Uncle Beasley as a reference for Harold to create a book for
my son. I found your post above and thought I would write you with the
answer. I was also interested in figuring out who came up with the name
of Uncle Beasley. It name came from a childrens book.
September 23, 2006 at 10:23 am
Thomas — Thank you for this information. It’s years since I’ve been to the zoo and I had no idea it was Uncle B’s new home. What a pity children can no longer climb on him.