Carnotaurus sastrei KAR-no-TOR-us
"Meat-eating bull"
You 1.8 m (5.9 ft) tall
Carnotaurus 8 m (26.2 ft) long
5 people holding hands
- Length
- 8 m (26.2 ft) — About 8 m long, ~1.6 tonnes — fast-running with tiny vestigial arms.
- Period
- Late Cretaceous (72–69 Mya)
- Place
- South America · Argentina
- Food
- Carnivore — Medium-sized prey, probably caught at high speed — long legs and a streamlined body.
Carnotaurus had two short bull-like horns above its eyes and arms even smaller than T. rex’s — the forearms were almost gone entirely. It was built for speed: long legs, a streamlined snout, and a tail that anchored powerful running muscles. Its skin is partly known from impressions, showing rows of bumpy scales but no feathers.
What we know
- Two thick bony horns above the eyes — unique among theropods.
- Arms so short they were almost vestigial — even shorter than T. rex.
- Skin impressions show rows of small scales (no feathers preserved).
- Long, deep skull with a short snout — a fast bite, but lower force than a T. rex.
What we guess
- What the horns were for — display, head-butting rivals, or both.
- Top running speed — long legs and tail muscle attachments suggest fast, but estimates vary.
- Why the arms shrank so much — possibly because the bite and skull took over all prey-handling jobs.