Introduction
Carnotaurus, the ‘Meat-eating bull’ is one of the most popular dinosaur to ever exist because of its distinctive horned look which almost all dinosaurs do not have. Also because of the fact how one well-preserved, almost complete skeleton was ever found and became popular due to it entering into a lot of pop culture media. This theropod is very different and it deserves to be studied a lot more. I am already sure you know that this dinosaur is also another Abelisauridae and how could you not with its’ vestigial arms, long necks with short and deep skulls and head ornamentation, that being the horns you can clearly see. So, let’s begin with understanding this dinosaur even more!
Discovery
The species Carnotaurus sastrei was discovered during an expedition led by Argentinian Paleontologist, Jose Bonaparte in 1984 in La Colonia Formation of Argentina where a lot more dinosaurs are still being discovered. The fossil skeleton was collected from a farm known as “Pocho Sastre” and that is where the second part of the name comes from, ‘Sastre‘ to ‘sastrei‘.
The best part about the discovery was that it was discovered with a whole skull and almost the entire body with only the legs and parts of the tail missing which where Ekrixinatosaurus‘ legs come in to help provide an idea of it’s legs were. The skull, however, was heavily deformed but with a lot of research, we can finally see how the skull looked like.
Even though we have only discovered this one skeleton, we have learned a lot about it as well as Abelisauridae in general and how they were distributed throughout the world which was mainly the Southern Hemisphere which includes South America, Africa and India and little bit from Europe as well. It is a well-researched carnivore from the La Colonia Formation. It was not until the 21st century that similar dinosaurs like it were being discovered and gave rise to the new family, Abelisauridae.
Biology
Carnotaurus was a large yet lightly-built predator meaning it could hunt down a prey for longer distances and it was around 8 m (26.2 ft) in length and 3 m (9.8 ft) in height. It is one of the largest abelisaurid ever found and it also weighed in around 1.3 tons to 2.1 tons from different studies but this goes to show light this dinosaur compared with similarly sized theropod dinosaurs.
The defining feature of all abelisaurids is how short their skulls are and the question arises as to how these animals might have hunted. Scientists have proposed that with the help of their strong neck muscles, they chased down their prey with quick bites from time to time, bleeding and tiring out the prey and finally the killing bite. Because the jaw bite strength is pretty weak when compared with other more heavily-built predators like Tyrannosaurus and Giganotosaurus. It was one of the last Late Cretaceous abelisaurids but it died out before the KPG Extinction event.
Carnotaurus was also discovered with a lot of skin impressions which showed that it had scales as well as bumps and scutes and the bumps would be more concentrated around the head, meaning the requirement for such an adaptation meant that this dinosaur probably battled with their horns and bumps on their heads for various reasons like mating and territory defense. This discovery provides a more clearer image of what a Carnotaurus and respective abelisaurids looked like in place of solely relying on educated speculation.
Media
I do not need to tell you this but Carnotaurus has a lot of media presence from Disney’s Dinosaur to Jurassic World. This dinosaur has been in almost all kinds of media from books to games to TV shows to documentaries and so much more to count. I have provided a list in which Carnotaurus has made an appearance and please do let me know down in the comments if I am missing anything.
- Jurassic Park: The Lost World Novel
- Disney’s Dinosaur (2000)
- Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
- Jurassic World: Dominion
- Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous
- Jurassic World: Chaos Theory
- Jurassic World Evolution 1 & 2
- Jurassic World The Game & Alive
- Dino Crisis 3
- Zoo Tycoon 2
- Terra Nova
- Bizarre Dinosaurs
- Dinosaur King
- Primal Carnage
- Turok: Son of Stone
- Ark: Survival Evolved
- Prehistoric Planet
And before Jurassic World’s version became widespread popular, there was a small fan-base of Carnotaurus from a film you may not have thought about. Disney’s Dinosaur. Yes, the infamous Walt Disney took a shot at making dinosaur-related movies and when I watched it, I was thoroughly pleased, not gonna lie.
I was mesmerized by the animation and it looked so realistic but also animated at the same time and the dinosaurs actually looked like dinosaurs and by far, the Carnotaurus was really terrifying. Not only was it big but it’s menacing presence and terror could be felt whenever it was near our protagonist. You could feel that any character who met the Carnotaurus they are as good as a carcass, that’s for sure.
But the size was not accurate like many parts of the film and I really did think Carnotaurus was Tyrannosaurus size but turned out to be not true when I actually started to learn about dinosaurs but either way! It is a super cool dinosaur and I can admit the popular it has gotten to be justified.
Merchandise
You already know how popular Carnotaurus and of course there are tons of merch as well and I have provided some links to some of the merch that I love to have in my collection and you can get one for yourself and show your love of Carnotaurus.
Jurassic World Hammond Collection Carnotaurus
Jurassic World Colossal Carnotaurus
Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous Chompin’ Carnotaurus
Fisher-Price Imaginext Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous Carnotaurus
Fisher-Price Imaginext Jurassic World Dinosaur Toy Spike Strike Carnotaurus
Jurassic World Fierce Changers 2-in-1 Dinosaur Carnotaurus to Stegosaurus
LEGO Jurassic World Carnotaurus Dinosaur Chase 76941
Geoworld Carnotaurus Dino Dig Kit – Build a 12-Inch Carnotaurus Skeleton Model
HAOLONGGOOD 1:35 Scale Carnotaurus
Jurassic Carnotaurus Dinosaur Figure
Now, before you go, I hope you learned something about the awesome Carnotaurus and make sure to keep coming back for more new dinosaur and prehistoric info!!