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Description

Ceratosaurus was a medium sized theropod dinosaur from the Ceratosauridae family, Ceratosaurus lived during the Late Jurassic Period and is known from the Morrison Formation in North America. Currently there are three recognised species of the genus Ceratosaurus; Ceratosaurus nasicornis being the best understood, Ceratosaurus dentisulcatus being the largest and most robust and Ceratosaurus magnicornis. However, it has been debated whether all three are the same species and if C. nasicornis is simply a juvenile making C. magnicornis and C. dentisulcatus the adults but at this point in time it is still debateable and as of yet undecided. Regardless, Ceratosaurus had a fully body length of between 5.5 and 6.7 meters according to the holotype description and the C. dentisulcatus specimen described later in 2007, the animal was given a total body weight of between 275 and 524 kilograms making it not enormous but still relatively large by Jurassic standards. Ceratosaurus is of course known for its iconic nasal and brow horns which it gets its name from, “Horned Lizard” and in life these structures may have been extended by a keratin sheaf much like the horns of big horned sheep, Ceratosaurus also possessed a row of triangular osteoderms running along the animals back, it had short but powerful arms and a long and stiff tail which was likely used as a counter balance while running. Although no skin impressions where discovered one can assume that Ceratosaurus would have been primarily scaly considering it is a very ancient type of theropod and is closely related to the Abelisaurids which are a family of theropod dinosaurs known to be scaly. For these reasons I have chosen to make this Ceratosaurus almost completely scaly and as much as I like feathered dinosaurs I believe this to be the appropriate skin covering. However, as feathers are an ancestral trait known to have been possessed by all dinosaurs I did add small amounts of simple, primitive feathers around the body but this is completely speculation and if you believe Ceratosaurus was completely scaly please let me know. As always I added small amounts of basic feathers on the snout, these whiskers like feathers may act as sensory organs but again are speculation and there is little evidence to support this theory. If you have any other criticism, please let me know and I will try my best to respond.

The Ceratosaurus specimen I used as a reference for size and body proportions was the Ceratosaurus dentisulcatus specimen which had an estimated total body length of around 6.7 meters.

Thank you to Scott Hartman for his C. dentisulcatus skeletal drawing

Description

Ceratosaurus was a medium sized theropod dinosaur from the Ceratosauridae family, Ceratosaurus lived during the Late Jurassic Period and is known from the Morrison Formation in North America. Currently there are three recognised species of the genus Ceratosaurus; Ceratosaurus nasicornis being the best understood, Ceratosaurus dentisulcatus being the largest and most robust and Ceratosaurus magnicornis. However, it has been debated whether all three are the same species and if C. nasicornis is simply a juvenile making C. magnicornis and C. dentisulcatus the adults but at this point in time it is still debateable and as of yet undecided. Regardless, Ceratosaurus had a fully body length of between 5.5 and 6.7 meters according to the holotype description and the C. dentisulcatus specimen described later in 2007, the animal was given a total body weight of between 275 and 524 kilograms making it not enormous but still relatively large by Jurassic standards. Ceratosaurus is of course known for its iconic nasal and brow horns which it gets its name from, “Horned Lizard” and in life these structures may have been extended by a keratin sheaf much like the horns of big horned sheep, Ceratosaurus also possessed a row of triangular osteoderms running along the animals back, it had short but powerful arms and a long and stiff tail which was likely used as a counter balance while running. Although no skin impressions where discovered one can assume that Ceratosaurus would have been primarily scaly considering it is a very ancient type of theropod and is closely related to the Abelisaurids which are a family of theropod dinosaurs known to be scaly. For these reasons I have chosen to make this Ceratosaurus almost completely scaly and as much as I like feathered dinosaurs I believe this to be the appropriate skin covering. However, as feathers are an ancestral trait known to have been possessed by all dinosaurs I did add small amounts of simple, primitive feathers around the body but this is completely speculation and if you believe Ceratosaurus was completely scaly please let me know. As always I added small amounts of basic feathers on the snout, these whiskers like feathers may act as sensory organs but again are speculation and there is little evidence to support this theory. If you have any other criticism, please let me know and I will try my best to respond.

The Ceratosaurus specimen I used as a reference for size and body proportions was the Ceratosaurus dentisulcatus specimen which had an estimated total body length of around 6.7 meters.

Thank you to Scott Hartman for his C. dentisulcatus skeletal drawing