When I was growing up, my favorite dinosaur was the Triceratops. You could have your big, macho, hyperaggressive T-rex and your slow, plodding brontosaurus. The triceratops, I like to think, was the thinking kid's dino, a creature that, although a gentle herbivore at heart, was capable of opening a sizeable can of whup-ass on an unwary predator, courtesy of its three wicked-looking horns. Note that the cool ride-on dinosaur pictured (which can be yours—or your child's, rather—for about $300 and change ) is a triceratops, not any other less worthy species.

So you can understand why I and legions of other sophisticated dinosaur lovers are heartbroken at the news that some smarty-pants scientists have decided that triceratops isn't triceratops at all, but rather a juvenile form of torosaurus, a similar looking dinosaur that also sports three horns and a frill at the back of the neck. How can this be? Have we all been living a lie? It's important stuff like this that keeps me up at night.

The idea here—based on the study of numerous triceratops and torosaurus skulls from Montana's Hell Creek formation by paleontologists John Scanella and Jack Horner—is that the creature's skull changed as it aged, eventually developing holes (or "fenestrations", if you want to get all scientific about it) in the neck frill and realigning the three horns.

This evidence is bolstered by the fact that no juvenile torosaurus remains have been found, and that most triceratops skulls measure from .5 to 2 meters in length, while torosaurus skulls all tend to be from 2 to 3 meters, suggesting that the smaller size is due to triceratops being a juvenile taurosaurus. You can read all the depressing (and, I admit, fascinating) news in the article at NewScientist.

But cheer up, fellow triceratops fans! Who are we to let scientific research get in the way of our love for the coolest dinosaur ever? After all, have you ever seen a torosaurus included in a set of plastic dinosaurs? No, didn't think so. And the aforementioned robotic ride-on toy—how could it be anything but triceratops? Let's all take a moment and watch this awesome clip from One Million Years, B.C. in which our favorite prehistoric critter totally ruins a carnivore's day. Raquel Welch is also running around in a wearing a skimpy fur bikini; you can fast forward past those parts to see the important dinosaur combat action!