Carnotaurs: Meat Eating Bull
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| Cuteysaurus, am I right? |
With a name like "Meat Eating Bull", I doubt many other dinosaurs can stack up to how fearsome and overall badass Carnotaurs is. To be honest, this dinosaur kind of flew under my radar for a long time, especially since I started a weird obsession with Ceratopsian dinos as of late.
I think I was listening to a podcast or perhaps just fell down an Internet rabbit hole, but I stumbled across more information about this giant demon beast and wanted to write about it.
[Edit 07/13/16: I Know Dino did an episode on Carnotaurus that went up today!]
- Hi, my name is Carnotaurus
Name: Carnotaurus "Meat Eating Bull"
Timeline: Late Cretaceous (69-72 million years ago)
Length: 26-30 feet long
Weight: 1.35 metric tons
Running Speed: 30-35 MPH
Favorite Color: red (probably)
Carnotaurus is part of the family or clade Abelisaurids, which are large Cretaceous therapods. These do not include the t-rex, when though he was around during the same time. He's not included in the Abelisaurids club, because he's a Tyrannosaur; he's got his own family and clade to hang out with.
These guys are pretty big, stocky, and have a smaller more stout muzzle than that of other therapods. Almost kind of have a pug look to them, in my opinion. They're very interesting looking.
Of course there are all kinds of amazing art for this animal, which I'll pepper in throughout this post. He must be a blast to draw, all devilish and what not.
Side note, look at those dupy lil arms. Oh god.
- What's up with the horns?
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| The look on that Ankylosaur's face is priceless. "oh crap oh crap oh crap" |
Let's talk about the horns. What the hell were the horns for, besides just making him look really, really devious? I assume it was probably something to do with battling other Carnotaurus, or maybe for sexual display, but I wasn't too sure. Time to hit the scientific journal for the expert opinion.
According to the article published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, the horns and bite force kind of go hand-in-hand.
While analyzing the bite force of Carnotaurus's bite force, which is weaker but faster than that of an Allosaurus, they had a better idea of the type of strength of Carnotaurus's skull. It's unlikely that the horns were meant for extreme, ram like jolts to the skull, but more of a slow pushing match.
So, imagine these big dudes pushing their heads together more like dears locking horns and shoving, not smacking into each other head on at break neck speed.
It's almost cute, isn't it?
I dug around a bit to find out if there has been any research done into whether or not the horns are exclusively male, but there's only been one almost complete skeleton found, so there's no way to really know for sure. They did find some skin impressions on this fossil, which show the skin to be pebbly and rough, but it's unknown if it had feathers or anything like that.
- Dude was fast.
The horns aren't the only thing that made Carnotaurus unique.
According to an article on PLOS One, these guys may have been one of the fastest therapods in the Cretaceous.
The spinal "arms" on Carnotaurus's vertebrate show a very strong muscle attachment to the "hind limb retractor muscle" that is connected to the tail. What that means is the very powerful tail the creature likely had, helped the powerful hind legs of the Carnotaurus to retract in powerful, fast motions. There's a good possibility that our horned friend could run up to 35MPH, which is pretty damn fast for a giant monster like that.
Most likely the animal was a "burst" or "sprint" runner, kind of like a cheetah, where they could go really fast for small stints of time.
This was discussed in the latest episode of I Know Dino, where the hosts interviewed Dr. Scott Persons of the Currie Museum. Dr. Persons studies dinosaur locomotion, so it was amazing to hear him talk about the science of understanding how these animals move.
- Cool models and toys
With every dinosaur I research, part of the fun is learning about them in a scientific manner, and that of a total dork who likes toys.
Luckily, Carnosaurs has captured the imagination of artists of all kinds and sells well as a toy. Kids love this guy, so collectors have some options on some cool junk to add to your already ridiculous pile.
1) BlueDino Carnotaurus Head $99
2) Papo Carnotaurus Figure $20
I love Papo toys, so this guy may have to make my shelf soon.
3) Terra collection Carnotaurus $12
I love my Terra Pachyrinosaur from this collection. They're cute, cheap alternatives to the higher priced items.
4) DinoStoreus Carnotaurus skull model $60
#DeskGoals
5) Full skeleton Carnotaurus from DinoStoreus $180
6) Smaller, but fleshed out and painted Carnotaurus from DinoStoreus $55
Sources:
For basic information: Wikipedia entry for Carnotaurs
Horn information: Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology "Cranial Mechanics and Funcation of the Horned Carnivorous Dinosaur Carnotaurus sastrei"
Locomotion information: Plos One "Dinosaur Speed Demon: The Caudal Muculature of Carnotaurus sastrei and Implications of the Evolution of South American Abelisaurids"
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