Triceratops --- Image by © Illustration Works/Corbis
In other words, your childhood memories of The Land Before Time are safe.
It all started when two scientists in Montana, John Scannella and Jack Horner, argued that triceratops (arguably the best of the dinosaurs) was actually just a young version of another, lesser-known dinosaur. They say that the young triceratops would shape-shift as they grew, developing into the dinosaurs known as torosaurus. Known by scientists that is, because no one else has ever heard of the torosaurus.
While the idea of shape-shifting dinosaurs is pretty cool, triceratops fans weren’t ready to let go so easily. Protesting the theory, a Facebook group popped up and pro-triceratops graphics started circulating.
Luckily for lovers of the three-horned dino, because the triceratops was discovered before torosaurus, naming convention rules that the former would be the official name for the dinosaur. So triceratops seems to be safe for now.
Mark this as a win for the mighty creature (and dino-nerds on the Internet).