African Bush Elephant vs Triceratops

[Godzillasaurus]

They didn't coexist? I thought they both lived in the Upper Cretaceous in North America?

*checks Wikipedia* oh, deinonychus lived in the Early Cretaceous...

[Dinopithecus]

Jan 20, 2014 10:39:40 GMT -5 Godzillasaurus said:

They didn't coexist? I thought they both lived in the Upper Cretaceous in North America?

*checks Wikipedia* oh, deinonychus lived in the Early Cretaceous...

Exactly, Late=Upper, Early=Lower. 

Of course, I also never denied Triceratops' main weapons will be its horns.

[Granobulax]

Here's my breakdown on the match up.

Weight: Equal. Both animals top end weight is roughly the same at around 26,000 lbs
Weapons: Equal. Saying one has a more lethal weapon is like saying one has a bazooka and one has a pistol. Both will kill.
Defense: Triceratops. It had to defend against one of the most lethal creatures to ever walk the earth.
Intelligence: Elephant. If it survives the initial onslaught, it will have learned from the experience and likely approach the situation a different way.
Intangibles: Equal. If the bull elephant is in musk, it may make irrational decisions which would likely wind up ending in a Triceratops victory. On the flip side, one thing I did not read anyone talking about is the use of the elephants trunk. It contains 40,000 individual muscles and is capable of grasping much like a human hand. The elephant could possibly use its trunk to grasp and manipulate the Triceratops' horns.

My take is that this fight is completely a coin flip. There's really no way of determining as there are far too many variables to consider.

[Distorted expression]

Elephants have been shown to flip two ton Hippos so it trunk would give it a huge advantage in pushing or redirecting the horns of a triceratops. Given they are both peaceful herd animals a fight would only break out when males were fighting to show off to a mate.

[Cold_Steel]

Think about it; Triceratops is built to defend itself. If the elephant attacks it, like T. Rex, it is going to be coming down from above. Triceratops is evolved to deal with that. Triceratops is not, however, necessarily equipped to do attacking in return. There is the intelligence factor; Triceratops may not be smart enough to do more than run right at the elephant, horns level. Very few critical hits are going to land doing that. Plus, an elephant is higher - and it is accustomed to climbing on top of something else that is large as when mating. The elephant could jump on top and start pounding with his feet.
Good defenses and weapons are great but they are a hindrance once they have been bypassed. 50/50 chance of winning for both of them.

[batcheno]

Elephant because it's bigger and it can stomp on the triceratops

[Pez]

This is a good hypothetical battle. Certainly both animals have strength and weaponery. However, I believe the elephant would win slightly more often than the triceratops. As mentioned previously, the elephant's trunk is a formidable weapon. Many studies have shown how powerful and flexible it is. The elephant would use it to pull push jerk or hold the dino, allowing it to gore the slower dinosaur. Someone earlier mentioned that a white rhino would gore an elephant, as a comparison to the triceratops. Well that is very far from reality as it has been documented that elephants have been killing rhinos (black rhinos) in some areas, theorizing competition for limited resources. Rhino deaths have caused concern among naturalists and game park authorities. Anyway back to the main fight. Another very little mentioned advantage of the elephant is its superior intelligence. We are talking top 3 in animal smarts here (great apes, dolphins/cetaceans). The elephant's vast superiority in smarts would allow it to size up the bulk and formidable weapons the triceratops has and graple with trunk and tusks with head low while using strength until it gets a gore shot on exposed flanks or neck/chest. This scenario has been observed when bulls fight each other or against rhinos. The triceratops brain is softball sized (stegosaurus brain is walnut sized). Limited cognitive ability would definitely impair fighting ability, counter-movements and agility. Elephants are deceptively fast and agile for their bulk, just watch them in action on any nature show. Their head can move very fast and has a great range of motion. Just because the T-rex was a contemporary does not mean the triceratops could fight it evenly nor does it mean they fought much at all. Some evidence of t-rex bite marks points to scavenging. A lion would win against an african buffalo just as a tiger would defeat a gaur (large asian buffalo) but these large carnivours would rather prey upon an easier target due to the risk factor of injury. In conclusion, based upon height, strength, trunk usage, fighting ability, head-shoulder-knee flexibility and vast intelligence advantage I believe the elephant would win a little more than half the time. Close competition, lets say 60 out of 100 times.

[Rexy]

Anyone who thinks the elephant has a chance here is insane.

[Anti-chump]

Sorry but all the fools who think the elephant has a chance are either in denial or mentally ill, triceratops would absolutely and completely murder any elephant with ease.

What will these fools be saying next? An elephant can beat T-Rex? Haha completely laughable.

[Triceratops]

This is a pretty interesting battle. Each animal having weapons in their arsenal and massive advantages and strength. However, I’m leaning towards the Triceratops. Before you could say it, no, it’s skull was NOT weak. The Truth About Killer Dinosaurs was actually incorrect; the head actually had a keratinous sheath covering the horns and beak and soft tissue that made the skull stronger in life. The Triceratops skull was also made out of some sort of material that wasn’t even close to bone, while the T-rex flesh was made out of metal. The Triceratops really could charge in real life, which will allow it to ram into the less robust and lighter elephant. Also, the horns of the dinosaur are believed to be able to take about 16329 kilograms of force. An elephant’s charge might not be enough to snap the horns due to their massive durability. There is also one last factor some people miss all the time. The Triceratops has a ball socket which is connected to its head. This allows it to swivel its head in a 360 motion. This will allow the Triceratops to place its head between its body and the opponent in just a second. Literally. Also, the weight of the Triceratops is absolutely insane. The largest specimen could weigh up to twice the weight of an adult elephant. Now we have the main factor that effects the entire battle: experience. The Triceratops lived in the late Cretaceous period, and was a contemporary to the Tyrannosaurus. Now, T-rex is believed to have actively hunted its prey due to bite marks on some dinosaur bones which have healed, which proves active hunting by Tyrannosaurus, and thus, Triceratops having to defend itself from it. In conclusion, I think the Triceratops would win about 70% of the time