Carnotaurus

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Carnotaurus
Restoration of Carnotaurus sastrei.
Conservation status
Exinct (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 seventy million years ago, and was discovered by José F. Bonaparte, who has discovered many other bizarre South American dinosaurs.

[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

Carnotaurus appeared in the novel The Lost World by Michael Crichton (1995) as a colour-changing chameleon-like dinosaur, but this ability is purely speculative. It also appeared in a level of the video game adaptation of the film.

Carney, The main character of the web comic Parry and Carney is a carnotautus [1]

Carnotaurus was set to make an appearance in the movie Jurassic Park III as the dinosaur approaching the characters as they search for a cellular phone within giant heaps of Spinosaurus dung. However this was changed to a Ceratosaurus.

The film Dinosaur features two Carnotaurus as the main antagonists, attacking a large herd of herbivorous dinosaurs. However, the 'lead' Carnotaurus was much larger than the real life animal, supersized to T-Rex proportions, when in real life Carnotaurus was even smaller than Iguanodon, the main dinosaur of the Disney Picture

At Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park, guests who ride "Dinosaur" (an attraction very loosely based on the Disney feature Dinosaur) are menaced by a large AudioAnimatronic "Carnotaurus", among other creatures.

In the Capcom game Dino Stalker a Carnotaur twin gang gets brutally murdered by a savage, gigantic, gothic-black Tyrannosaurus rex,acting like a comeback by the Tyrannosaur after its grisly demise by a Giganotosaurus in Capcom's Dino Crisis 2

[edit] External links

• [2]

• "Carnotaurus ". DinoData.

• Carnotaurus "flesh-eating bull", by T. Mike Keesey from The Dinosauricon.