The Living Archive
A cabinet of natural history
Volume I · The ancient worldAn interactive field guideEst. MMXXVI
Chapter I / The animal

A face fromanother world.

Sixty-six million years ago, a plant eater with three horns walked across western North America. Its bones still give us a way to meet it. Turn the skeleton. Follow the curve of the frill. Look a little closer.

68–66million years ago · Late Cretaceous

A fossil is a beginning, not the whole story. Soft tissue, colour and behaviour leave far fewer clues than bone.

Read the museum notes ↗
Fig. 01 / Ceratopsidae
The three-horned face

Triceratops horridus

Marsh, 1889 · North America
Opening the archivePreparing the museum scan
Smithsonian collection · Digital reconstruction

Drag to turn · On touch, use two fingers · + / − to zoom

01 / 04
Notes from the archive

A museum in the margins.

The Living Archive pairs an old natural history folio with a specimen you can turn in your hands. Follow four short chapters, or explore the bones at your own pace.

Drag with a mouse to rotate. On a touch screen, use two fingers to turn and one finger to scroll. Use the zoom buttons for a closer look. With the model focused, the arrow keys turn it, + and − zoom, and R restores the chapter view.

The people behind the specimen

An independent educational experiment by RobotCandy. No museum affiliation or endorsement.