John Scannella is a doctoral student at Montana Sate University
and the Museum of the Rockies, located in Bozeman, Montana. His
research centers on understanding the evolutionary history of
Triceratops, a genus of dinosaurs known for a characteristic
bony head frill and three horns. In July 2010 Scannella and John
“Jack” Horner, curator of paleontology at the Museum of the
Rockies and regents professor at Montana State University,
published a paper in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology
revealing that Triceratops and “Torosaurus,” rather than
representing two separate genera of dinosaurs, actually are
different versions of the same dinosaur. With this
groundbreaking report in mind, Britannica science editors Kara
Rogers and John Rafferty asked Scannella about the discovery and
what it means for scientists’ understanding of dinosaur
diversity. * * * Britannica: As your recent paper in the Journal
of Vertebrate Paleontology points out, Triceratops and
Torosaurus have been considered distinct dinosaurs, class