Carnotaurus

> "*Carnotaurus. A true predator.*"
> ― Dr. Niklas Winston, CIC
>
>

**Carnotaurus**, meaning **Flesh-Eating Bull**, and maybe known in the past as the **Minotaur**, is a large bipedal dinosaur which lives in South America. It is a relative of other Theropod Dinosaurs, such as *Abelisaurus*, *Majungasaurus*, *Ceratosaurus*, and *Rajasaurus*. *Carnotaurus* lives in Patagonia, Argentina, and its fossils were discovered by José F. Bonaparte, who has discovered many other bizarre South American dinosaurs.

## Description

*Carnotaurus* is a large theropod and one of the largest abelisaurs, about 7-9 meters in length, and between 2-3 tons in weight. Abelisaurids have odd features in their heads, as *Carnotaurus* has two large brow horns over its eyes, while its smaller relative *Majungasaurus* has highly bizarre looking knob on its head. It is probably the fastest running theropod, reaching a speed of up to 40 mph.

Abelisaurids also have very reduced forelimbs with four or five fingers. In particular, the arms of *Carnotaurus*, when compared to their body size, are far smaller than even those of *Tyrannosaurus Rex* and are almost completely useless, and possibly the smallest forelimbs in whole animal kingdom compared to body mass. Hands of this creature have four very small fingers, and only two of them actually have bones.

*Carnotaurus* has one of most bizarre skulls among the dinosaur world. He has big bony bumps, morphologically similar to horns of the modern bull above the optical openings. He could use them for dominance battles, defense, or hunting.

*Carnotaurus* has a very big postorbital area of skull, allowing his bite to be very strong. According to paleontologist Robert Bakker, so-called "rottweiler effect" makes an animal's bite powerful. The "rottweiler effect" is an especially large back part of the skull (postorbitlal area) where jaw muscles are located. The bigger the postorbital area, the stronger the bite force. Also, *Carnotaurus's* teeth are very unique design - they were very wide, and relatively blunt, resembling the railroad spike. These teeth are very suitable for crushing bone, making this carnivore's bite enormously lethal.

His relatively large eyes are positioned right at the front of the skull, giving him binocular and tri-dimensional vision, which is somewhat unusual in Dinosauria.

## Popular Culture

*Carnotaurus* is one of the most diversely portrayed dinosaurs in history.

* It appears as a camouflaging ambush predator in Michael Crichton's ***The Lost World***. Two of them kill Diego, while hunting Levine and later Thorne. They are feared by raptors and driven off by confusing light patterns, because their chameleon abilities cannot keep up.
* At least one *Carnotaurus* will appear in ***Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom***, preying upon humans but itself the prey of *T. Rex*. One helps eat the main villain.
* *Carnotaurus* are portrayed correctly as deadly predators in ***Terra Nova***, as the main antagonist.
* The Disney movie ***Dinosaur*** incorrectly portrays *Carnotaurus* as a 40-foot-long beast with a square jaw, but gets it right that it likely ambushes prey to scatter them.
* In a touch of irony, *T. Rex* was replaced by *Carnotaurus* in Disney's ***Dinosaur*** so as to not imitate ***Jurassic Park***. *Carnotaurus* was replaced by *Ceratosaurus* in ***Jurassic Park III*** as to not imitate Disney's ***Dinosaur***. Oh, the humanity . . . or the carnotaurity . . . ah, whatever.
* The *Asylum* film ***Age of Dinosaurs*** ripped *Carnotaurus'* name off and placed it on a stupid and slow raptor with horns, where the creatures were easily picked off.

## In Real Life

In old Greek Mythology, there is a strange monster called the Minotaur. With its good sense of smell, bipedal stance, and bullhorns, and also throwing in the diet of meat that lasts a while, it is likely the legend was true, and that *Carnotaurus* was alive at that point, and may still be alive today as an Australian or South American Cryptid.