Carnotaurus

Carnotaurus /ˌkɑːrnoʊˈtɔːrəs/ is a genus of large theropod dinosaur that lived in South America during the Late Cretaceous period, from about 72 to 69.9 million years ago. The only known species is Carnotaurus sastrei. Derived from the Latin words carnis meaning "flesh" and taurus meaning "bull", the name Carnotaurus means "meat-eating bull", an allusion to the animal's carnivorous diet and bull-like horns.[1][2]

Carnotaurus is a derived member of Abelisauridae, a family of large theropods that occupied the large predatorial niche in the southern continents, which once formed the supercontinent Gondwana, during the Cretaceous. The phylogeneticrelations of Carnotaurus within Abelisauridae are uncertain; but it is thought to have been most closely related to either Majungasaurus or Aucasaurus. It is known from a single well-preserved skeleton and is one of the best-understood theropods from the Southern Hemisphere. The skeleton, found in 1984, was uncovered from the La Colonia Formation in the Chubut Province of Argentina.

Carnotaurus was a lightly built, bipedal predator, measuring 7.5 to 9 m (24.6 to 29.5 ft) in length and weighing at least 1.35 metric tons (1.33 long tons; 1.49 short tons). As a theropod, Carnotaurus was highly specialized and distinctive. It had thick horns above the eyes, a feature unseen in all other carnivorous dinosaurs, and a very deep skull sitting on a muscular neck. Carnotaurus was further characterized by small, vestigial forelimbs and long, slender hindlimbs. The skeleton is preserved with extensive skin impressions, showing a mosaic of small, non-overlapping scales approximately 5 mm in diameter. The mosaic was interrupted by large bumps that lined the sides of the animal, and there are no hints of feathers.

The distinctive horns and the muscular neck may have been used in fighting conspecifics. According to separate studies, rivaling individuals may have combated each other with quick head blows, by slow pushes with the upper sides of their skulls, or by ramming each other head-on, using their horns as shock absorbers. The feeding habits of Carnotaurusremain unclear: some studies suggest the animal was able to hunt down very large prey such as sauropods, while other studies find it preyed mainly on relatively small animals. Carnotaurus was well adapted for running and was possibly one of the fastest large theropods.