How these prehistoric animals compare
Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops lived in the same part of North America at the very end of the Cretaceous, which makes this one of the few popular matchups with real geological overlap.
A real shared setting
Both genera are known from latest Cretaceous rocks of western North America, including formations that preserve their fossils together. Unlike many popular pairings, this comparison is geologically meaningful. Shared habitat still does not describe how often, or whether, individuals interacted.
A predator and a horned herbivore
Tyrannosaurus had a deep skull, strong jaws and thick teeth. Triceratops was a ceratopsian with a bony frill and three facial horns. Their anatomy is different because they filled very different roles, one as a large predator and the other as a large plant-eater.
What the bite marks show
Tooth marks on some Triceratops bones, including marks that show healing, have been attributed to a tyrannosaur. That is evidence that the two interacted in some way, but it cannot show whether an animal was hunted or scavenged. A staged fight is not something the fossils record.
Sources and specimen context: Tyrannosaurus references · Triceratops references · Geological timeline
