Carnotaurus

Carnotaurus (“meat-eating bull”), was one of the most bizarre yet dangerous meat-eating dinosaurs ever found. Its skull was short, with spiked armor in the form of feature scales across its body (skin impressions show this, although it is unknown around the face since the impressions for that area were destroyed) on the top and a pair of knobby horns over its small eyes. The neck and shoulder blades were well developed, but the arms were incredibly short, with forearms so shrunken they were practically just wrists; not even Tyrannosaurus rex had such small arms.

With its small skull and weak bite force, Carnotaurus might not have been able to attack big plant-eaters, but it was probably fast due to its long and powerfully built legs and could have easily chased down smaller, agile prey. In fact, research has indicated that despite Carnotaurus’ small head, its jaws were able to open very widely apart from other theropod dinosaurs in order to catch prey.

The horns of Carnotaurus look something like those of a bull – and like a bull, it may have used them in contests with others of its own species. In this way, two Carnotaurus could test each other’s strength without either of them seriously injuring the other.

Carnotaurus has become quite famous as a result of its starring role in the Disney animated film Dinosaur, however the animal depicted in the film are closer in size to Tyrannosaurus rex than the actual real Carnotaurus.