A horn on its nose
The thin, blade-like nose horn was probably for display, not for fighting.
Jurassic giants · Theropods
Ceratosaurus
Horned lizard · seh-RAT-oh-SORE-us
A medium-sized hunter with a horn on its nose, a small horn over each eye and a row of bony studs down its back.
- Size
- About 6 to 7m long; up to 1 tonne
- Lived
- About 153 to 148 million years ago
- Found in
- Western USA, and Portugal
Prowls after you. Move your pointer and see.
To scale
How big was it?
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Good to know
Six things about the ceratosaurus
Armour for a hunter
A single row of small bony plates ran down the middle of its back, which is unusual in a meat-eater.
Very long teeth
Its upper teeth were so long that they reached below the lower jaw when its mouth was shut.
A deep tail
Its tail was tall and flexible. It may have been a good swimmer.
It may have fished
Its teeth are often found near ancient rivers and lakes.
Living with Allosaurus
It was smaller and rarer than Allosaurus and probably hunted different prey.
The real thing
Photos of the ceratosaurus
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What it ate
Smaller dinosaurs, and perhaps fish, turtles and crocodiles from the water's edge.
How we know
The first skeleton was found in Colorado in the 1880s and was almost complete.
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