Carnotaurus

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iCarnotaurus
Restoration of Carnotaurus sastrei.
Restoration of Carnotaurus sastrei.
Conservation status
Extinct (fossil)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Sauropsida
Superorder: Dinosauria
Order: Saurischia
Suborder: Theropoda
Infraorder: Ceratosauria
Family: Abelisauridae
Subfamily: Carnotaurinae
Genus: Carnotaurus
Species: C. sastrei
Binomial name
Carnotaurus sastrei
Bonaparte, 1985

Carnotaurus (kahrn-oh-TAWR-us) meaning "meat-eating bull", referring to its distinct bull-like horns (Latin carn = flesh + taurus = bull) was a large predatory dinosaur, similar to a Tyrannosaurus rex with a head distantly resembling a bull's.

Carnotaurus lived in Patagonia, Argentina about one hundred million years ago, during the Cenomanian stage of the Late Cretaceous, and was discovered by José F. Bonaparte, who has discovered many other bizarre South American dinosaurs.

Contents

[edit] Description

The most distinctive features of Carnotaurus are the two thick horns above the eyes, and the extremely reduced forelimbs with four fingers. It had a small skull, a thick chest, and a thin tail. The eyes of the Carnotaurus faced forward, which is unusual in a dinosaur, and may indicate binocular vision and depth perception.

A single nearly complete skeleton has been described including impressions of skin along almost the entire right side, that show Carnotaurus lacked feathers, unlike many other theropods discovered recently (see also feathered dinosaurs). Instead, the skin is lined with rows of bumps, that become larger toward the spine.

Carnotaurus was a medium-sized theropod, about 7.5 m (25 ft) in length, 2.2 m (7 ft 3 in) tall at the hips, and weighing about 1,000 kg (1.1 tons).

[edit] Classification

The type species Carnotaurus sastrei is the only known species. Its closest relatives include Aucasaurus (Argentina), Majungatholus (Madagascar), and Rajasaurus (India). Together, these dinosaurs form the subfamily Carnotaurinae in the family Abelisauridae.

[edit] In Popular Culture

Since the mid-1990s, Carnotaurus has been featured regularly in the popular media. One of its earliest prominant roles in fiction was the 1995 sequel to Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton's The Lost World. In the novel, Carnotaurus was portrayed as having the (completely fictional) ability to change its color to blend into the background, like a chameleon. While it did not appear in the 1997 film adaptation of the novel, Carnotaurus subsequently appeared in numerous tie-ins to the Jurassic Park franchise, including several video games. Another prominant movie role for Carnotaurus came with the 2000 Walt Disney animated film Dinosaur, which featured two Carnotaurus attacking a large herd of herbivorous dinosaurs. The Carnotaurus in the film were much larger than the real life animal, scaled up to proportions more closely resembling the giant theropod Tyrannosaurus. In reality, Carnotaurus was even smaller than Iguanodon, the main dinosaur featured in the Disney picture. At Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park, guests who ride "Dinosaur" (an attraction based on the Disney feature) are menaced by a large AudioAnimatronic "Carnotaurus".

Jurassic Park tie-ins aside, Carnotaurus has appeared in several other dinosaur-related video games, including the Capcom game Dino Stalker in which a gang of Carnotaurus are slain by a Tyrannosaurus rex. Carnotaurus was also one of the dinosaurs featured in the Zoo Tycoon 2: Dino Danger Pack premium download. The webcomic Parry and Carney[1] also features a Carnotarus as the central character.

[edit] External links

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