Kinds of dinosaurs
Lots of dinosaurs had horns. The most famous one, Triceratops, had three. But there was one with a single horn, one with fifteen, and a meat-eater with horns like a bull.
And one had no horns at all, just a head as hard as a helmet. Here's how to tell them apart.
One, two, three horns. Count them! I'll wait.
Three horns
One horn on its nose and two above its eyes: that's a Triceratops (say it: try-SERR-a-tops). Behind the horns sat a big frill of bone, like a shield for its neck.
Triceratops had a nose horn so sharp, it could probably cut through wood, and a head the size of a small car! It lived at the same time as its biggest enemy, the mighty Tyrannosaurus rex.
Triceratops facts for kids, with a short video.
The horn that healed
Sharper than the fossils
A giant bison?
The horned faces
Triceratops had a big family. Scientists call them ceratopsians, which means “horned faces”. They all ate plants, and they all had a beak like a parrot's and a frill of bone. The horns are how you tell them apart. (The pictures aren't to scale.)
Styracosaurus
Say it: sty-RAK-oh-sore-us · “spiked lizard”
Look for: One long horn on its nose, and long spikes all around its frill.
Some skulls have six spikes on the frill, and some have eight. It was about 5.5 meters (18 feet) long.
Pachyrhinosaurus
Say it: pack-ee-RINE-oh-sore-us · “thick-nosed lizard”
Look for: No nose horn at all! A big, flat, bony bump instead.
The bump is called a boss. This dinosaur was about as long as two cars parked nose to tail.
Torosaurus
Say it: tor-oh-SORE-us · “bull lizard”
Look for: Horns like a Triceratops, and a VERY long frill.
It had the largest frill of any horned dinosaur.
Protoceratops
Say it: pro-toe-ker-ah-tops · “first horned face”
Look for: A beak and a frill, but no horns. It was small, about as long as a tall grown-up.
One was fossilized in the middle of a fight with a Velociraptor!
A full dot is a horn. A ring is a spike on the frill. Kosmoceratops, from Utah, had ten of its 15 on the frill.
The dinosaur with a frill
To fight off a T. rex
To fight each other
Horns, and it eats meat
Almost every horned dinosaur ate plants. Not Carnotaurus (say it: kar-noh-TORE-us). Its name means “meat-eating bull”, because of the two short horns above its eyes.
Carnotaurus was a fast, meat-eating dinosaur with remarkably short arms. It was one of the fastest dinosaurs, capable of swallowing its prey in a single gulp!
It is the only dinosaur of its family known to have two horns on its head, and nobody is quite sure what they were for. Maybe to fight rivals, maybe to attack its prey.
Turn it with your finger or mouse and find the horns. On a phone or tablet, tap “See it in your room” and it stands on your floor.
One more: Ceratosaurus, the “horned lizard”, was a meat-eater with a small horn on its snout.
No horns, a helmet
Pachycephalosaurus (say it: pack-ee-KEF-ah-lo-SORE-us) means “thick-headed lizard”. It had a big dome of bone on top of its head, with spikes and bumps all around it. It walked on two legs and was about 3 meters (10 feet) long.
Nobody knows for sure what the dome was for. Some scientists think these dinosaurs butted heads, the way rams do with their horns. Others think it was for showing off.
The dragon king of Hogwarts
Not a horn: a crest
Dilophosaurus (say it: die-LOAF-oh-SORE-us) means “two-crested lizard”. Two thin crests ran along the top of its head, side by side. It was the first meat-eating dinosaur ever found with crests.
Some plant-eaters had crests too: the duck-billed dinosaurs. One had a crest like a helmet, one like a hatchet, and one had a long hollow tube.
Free, no sign-up
Two pages. One for heads (horns, frills, crests and the hard head), one for backs and tails (plates, spikes, armor and clubs). Each dinosaur comes with a “look for” clue.
Take it to a museum, or play it at home with the toy box. There's a black and white version to color in.
Free for home and classroom use. Please share the link to this page rather than the file.
Riddle · who am I?
My head is as big as a small car, they say,and T. rex and I lived in the very same day.
My name says it all: three horns on my face.A young one like me went on a big egg chase!
Triceratops!
The true bit: “Triceratops” means “three-horned face”. (Natural History Museum, London) From our book Dinosaurs Are Back: the egg chase is Spike's story.
More like this: all the dinosaur riddles and dinosaur jokes for kids.
Questions kids ask
Keep sorting
Dinosaurs with spikes, armor and club tailsStegosaurus had plates and tail spikes, Ankylosaurus had armor and a club, and one dinosaur had a sail.Take a look →
Dinosaur eggsEven the biggest dinosaurs hatched from eggs you could hold. And some eggs were blue-green!Take a look →
Plant-eaters and meat-eatersSort Spike's ten dinosaurs, and learn to tell a plant-eater from a meat-eater by its teeth.Take a look →
Types of dinosaursEvery dinosaur belongs to one of seven kinds, and you can tell them apart by their shape.Take a look →
Water dinosaursWere there dinosaurs in the sea? No! But one dinosaur was a real swimmer, and some still are.Take a look →
Duck-billed dinosaursDuck bills had a flat beak with hundreds of grinding teeth behind it, and some wore a crest like a helmet.Take a look →Got a big question instead? The biggest, the fastest, the fliers and the long necks. Or meet ten dinosaurs, one page each, with a fun fact and a riddle.
Our own bookA picture book · ages 6 to 10
The hero of this story is Spike, a young Triceratops with three horns and a baby brother to find. He meets ten dinosaurs on the way, and every one of them steps off its page with a phone or tablet.
Katia's facts are from the fact page near the end of Dinosaurs Are Back. Everything else was checked on these pages on October 1, 2026.
Picture credits