#ceratosaurs

I Love Theropods t-shirt

This t-shirt features an assortment of well-known theropod dinosaurs (not to scale). Can you recognize them all?

252mya.com/lovethero

🦕Jurassic baby

#Archovember Day 10 - Ceratosaurus nasicornis

Type species of the Ceratosauria, Ceratosaurus nasicornis was a medium-sized predator from Late Jurassic North America. It was characterized by deep jaws and 3 prominent horns on its head. It also had a ridge of small osteoderms down it’s back, as well as elsewhere across its skin.

Late Jurassic North America seemed to be ruled by a trifecta of theropod apex predators: Torvosaurus, Allosaurus, and Ceratosaurus. There have been multiple studies on how these predators could have coexisted without direct competition, but it was likely due to niche partitioning. Ceratosaurus could have preferred different prey items, and even different parts of a carcass when scavenging. Ceratosaurus had thin, elongated teeth in comparison to the other theropods, and could have even hunted semi-aquatic prey like lungfish, crocodiles, and turtles.

Although they are, at first glance, very similar, a major difference between Ceratosaurs and Tyrannosaurids is the number of digits in the hand. While Tyrannosaurids were characterised by having only two functional fingers in each hand, Ceratosaurs notably kept all four.