Ausarchosaur

Well in that case it's harder to have a reach advantage against a much larger foe. Although, if it meant they needed to take less steps just to grab a piece of sauropod with their jaws, I think it still would've been an asset.

One more thing:

At any rate, I at least hope you found this thread informative. If you see a lot more going on in a skirmish between these two dinosaurs than you did before, then this thread has done its job.

Like I said at the beginning of this thread a few days ago, I won't explicitly pick a winner. This isn't a hill I feel like dying on in the way I would for most of the other versus debates I covered, given how less agreed upon this one is. But you can probably guess who I favor.

So as obviously deadly as the primary weapons of both animals are and would be to each other...I actually think a "good bite" from the theropod might have a greater chance of rapid incapacitation or death than a "good stab" from the ceratopsian would.

Image source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HJRK_A_32_-_Boar_spear_head_of_Frederick_IV_of_the_Tyrol,_c._1430.jpg

Image source: https://www.mandarinmansion.com/glossary/tiger-spear-qing

Hell, there's a reason spears used to hunt boars, bears, or tigers had lugs behind the spear head: so the stabbed prey item couldn't move up the spear shaft and maul the hunter.

From a T. rex graphic novel authored and illustrated by Ted Rechlin

it failed to hit a vital, this could open up the possibility for a counterattack from the T. rex.

Sort of like this, I guess:

Granted, ceratopsids had relatively much more room for leg musculature than do extant rhinos and elephants, which would allow them to put a lot more force behind a goring. But even if a Trike punched a horn through a part of rex's body, if it fails to incapacitate it b/c--

Image source: https://www.savingthesurvivors.org/white-rhino-loses-fight-with-elephant/

Here is a white rhino that was gored by an elephant. Granted, it received medical attention and could have died w/out it. But still, it did not immediately die even after being gored by an animal ~3x its size.

Elephant stabbed 20 - 30 times by a tusker being saved by Sri Lankan Officers Elephant stabbed 20 - 30 times by a tusker being saved by Sri Lankan Officers-This elephant is in pain and is almost out of energy to even stand up.

Here’s another. This elephant was stabbed 20-30 times by a tusker, and succumbed an unspecified long time afterwards.
wildelephantvideo.com/elephant-sta...

YouTube video by Kruger National Park ▶▶▶ 2 Rhino's Fight - Hippo gets out of the Way !

I’ll give you an example. Here's a fight between two white rhinos. One rhino repeatedly and forcefully gores its opponent in the belly. Despite this, the rhino's horn *didn't even break the skin of its foe* and both proceeded to run to a watering hole.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUBo...

What about Triceratops? Surely one stab would mean instant death for the T. rex...right?

Actually, not necessarily. Goring weapons are not (necessarily) instant kill weapons either. In fact, I'd wager in most cases they aren't.

Image source: https://latestsightings.com/single-post/wild-dogs-v-impala-impala-fights-back-as-guts-fall-out?srsltid=AfmBOoq0DgKP319duZoBn8mek1wQojUj1ZEsKWpEk_4vgqwzC-0PpC5o

...but I think this is relatively unlikely. And even if a mortally wounded Triceratops continues to fight back, it would be fighting an uphill battle and wouldn't be long for this world.

(This impala disemboweled by wild dogs is an example of what I'm talking about.)

Aside from glancing bites I do think, in most cases, a T. rex will have practically won should it manage to say, rip off a large chunk of flesh or disembowel the Trike.

Now, there IS potential for even a disemboweled Trike to continue fighting and potentially harming the rex…

Photo by Wikipedia user Ricardalovesmonuments: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Natural_History_Museum,_London_Thyrannosurus_Triceratops.jpg

What of weaponry? There's no doubt that both dinosaurs are capable of killing each other with their weapons, so I focused more on discussing who can land a blow first. But even landing the 1st blow isn't a guarantee of victory. And this is where the thread takes a gruesome turn.

New species of Marmosa from Peru
digitallibrary.amnh.org/items/d9c5cb...

I feel *slightly* bad for not backing Creative Beast's trading card game campaign, but my head is telling me I need all the money I can get to preorder/buy their much more expensive figures.

Plus their campaign is doing just fine anyway.

I completely forgot about that Protoceratops model…

I should also note my copy of the book in the OP is also definitely not in mint condition, but I got pieces of tape holding it together well enough lol

I wish I could get into wildlife photography. Problem isn't even the wildlife that lives here, it's just that I'm too lazy to pay a lot for a quality camera. That and I have no concept of taking a good photo beyond "Oh look! *snap*".

To try & sum, the Trike is not only exceptionally brawny (even compared to T. rex), but can also turn en pointe much better. The theropod's own body plan basically gives the middle finger to this agility discrepancy, and its inner ear anatomy may confer superior head reflexes.

(And remember how I said earlier that Triceratops likely had a heavier, much less pneumatic head/skull? Well, the fact that T. rex's head, heavy as it was, was probably still lighter than Trike's, would bolster its ability to quickly swing that head to the side in comparison.)

Photo by Tim Evanson: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Back_and_below_of_Triceratops_skull_-_Fergus_County_Montana_-_Museum_of_the_Rockies_-_2013-07-08.jpg

damn near spherical occipital condyle. This ball and socket joint afforded Triceratops' head a lot of range of range of motion. Coupled with the powerful neck muscles, it could still have moved its head quickly. It just wasn't as primed for this or a stable gaze as T. rex.

balance/equilibrium as its non-ceratopsid kin.

Now of course, this isn't to say that Triceratops was a poorly balanced animal or that it couldn't move its head quickly. It was still a stout, insanely muscular-legged quadruped. Likewise, its skull was equipped with a single--

Sakagami & Kawabe (2020): https://peerj.com/articles/9888.pdf

Sakagami & Kawabe (2020): https://peerj.com/articles/9888.pdf

Sakagami & Kawabe (2020): https://peerj.com/articles/9888.pdf

How does Triceratops compare? As it turns out, its vertical semicircular ear canals were not as developed as those of earlier, more "primitive" ceratopsians like Psittacosaurus and Protoceratops. This meant that its inner ear anatomy was not as primed for gaze stabilization and--

When your mouth is your first weapon that contacts prey, which are variably armed with kicking limbs, swatting tails (some of which are armed with biological maces), and 1+ meter horns, it helps to be able to keep your eyes locked on them when they fight back.

Witmer & Ridgely (2009): https://anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/ar.20983

Witmer & Ridgely (2009): https://anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/ar.20983

coelurosaurs is so great that it can't be explained solely by a need to make up for their bipedal stance or scaling. It is, instead, better explained as a predatory adaptation, to stabilize their gaze on prey with quick, agile head and eye movements.

The rostral canals of tyrannosaurids are elongated, as is in other theropods, which is in line with their less table bipedal posture necessitating greater balance. However, the extent of elongation of the rostral canal, and the lateral canal, of tyrannosaurs and other--

How would their reflexes compare? We can get an idea of this by comparing the inner ear anatomy of both dinosaurs. Elongated semicircular ear canals are an indicator of heightened agility and highly coordinated head/eye movements (gaze stabilization).

The T. rex has a way to reach and grab the Triceratops’ vulnerable flanks without having to actually be anywhere near as agile as its quadrupedal prey, and which requires less effort/energy than having to pivot its whole body around. That is a significant advantage.

Art by Twitter user @yukkurigamesu

Art by Twitter user @yukkurigamesu

Helpfully, a Twitter artist made a couple pieces of artwork that perfectly demonstrate how a theropod could circle/strike around a quadrupedal prey item (even if this was not their original intent), using the lateral reach of its body plan to its advantage.