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. It 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. The missing parts were filled by 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.
FAQ:
Is a Carnotaurus stronger than a T-rex?
No, a Carnotaurus is not stronger than a T-rex even though Carnotaurus has intimidating horns and speed, it is still, in-fact, quite smaller than a T-rex. While in the Jurassic World films, Carnotaurus looks buff and strong, in real-life, it was a lot slim and slender as it was mainly a speedster. Even the jaws of Carnotaurus are not strong like the T-rex. T-rex is not only bigger by extra 4.6 m (15 ft) but also heavier 4 tons more. The jaws are a lot longer and stronger with strong keratinous cover over the eyes that almost acted like horns for it. In short, Carnotaurus is not stronger than a T-rex.
What killed the Carnotaurus?
While Carnotaurus lived for 3 million years in the Cretaceous Argentina, many factors caused it for to be extinct. It could have been an arrival of stronger and more competitive theropods that took over the place of Carnotaurus. Environmental changes and food shortages could be another cause and the inability to adapt after becoming specialized in one thing probably led to its extinction before the Mass Extinction of Dinosaurs, the KPG Extinction. There are many factors that led to one species being extinct but one reason cannot be the answer as it is usually a multitude of different reasons acting together for the demise of Carnotaurus.
Was Carnotaurus intelligent?
While there is no proper way or scientific method to measure dinosaur intelligence, obviously because they are extinct, but paleontologists have theorized that it may be more intelligent than your Allosaurus and Giganotosaurus but not as smart as a Tyrannosaurus would have been.
Why did Disney choose Carnotaurus?
This is a pretty fun question because Walt Disney already had in mind to use the overrated Tyrannosaurus but the look of the Carnotaurus changed his mind. He thought it’s demonic appearance would work well as an antagonist for both the film and the ride in Disneyland Animal Kingdom, and it was also not a well-known species back then, so he also had a little creative liberty with as well. For filmmakers, having a dinosaur which is not well-known or has very less fossil materials, works great for them as they can put their own spin on the dinosaur design, no wonder the it was so massive.
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 it has made an appearance. 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. 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. 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 it, 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 it 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 got to be justified.
Merchandise:
You already know how popular Carnotaurus and of course there are tons of merch as well. I have provided some links to some of the merch that I love to have in my collection. You can get one for yourself and show your love of for it.
Now, before you go, I hope you learned something about the awesome Carnotaurus. And you can check out more dinosaurs or other prehistoric creatures post from the Species Profile page!!
