A rare dino by any name

It turns out the Thornton triceratops, which was discovered on a construction site in August and nicknamed Tiny by school children, isn’t actually a triceratops after all, but rather the dinosaur’s rare close cousin: A torosaurus.

The two are practically indistinguishable, according to a statement from the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. Both have a large horn over each eye and a smaller nose horn, hence the assumption that it was the more common triceratops.

But torosaurus were longer, thinner and had a more delicate frill with two very large holes. Museum workers discovered those features while cleaning the bones. This is the first recorded torosaurus find in Colorado, the museum said.

“Not only is the fossil more complete and better preserved than I imagined, but it has also revealed itself to be something extremely rare,” said Joe Sertich, curator of dinosaurs at the Museum, in a statement. “The Thornton beast is by far the most complete, and best preserved, ever found.”

He said there are likely more than 2,000 quality triceratops specimens in the American West but only about seven partial torosaurus skulls prior to this find.

Tiny is still the most complete Cretaceous Period fossil discovered in Colorado. About 95 percent of the skull and at least 20 percent of the skeleton have been identified, according to the museum.

Excavators found several bones, including two brow bones, a lower jaw beak, shoulder bones and a stray tooth from a scavenging T. rex. Cleaning has also revealed more skull bones and a complete tibia. People can watch the torosaurus being cleaned at the museum’s Fossil Prep Lab. The fossils were found by construction workers building an upcoming Fire and Police Substation. An operator scooping dirt was told to stop suddenly when a geotechnical engineer -- someone who reviews soil conditions -noticed something inconsistent with the surrounding claystone and sand.