Ceratosaurus

Name means: “horned lizard”1

Ate: MeatOther meat-eatersLate Jurassic to Early Cretaceous

Ceratosaurus was a meat-eating dinosaur that lived in North America and Europe during the Late Jurassic Period. It had a horn on its snout and a row of small bony plates along its back. It was a rare hunter that lived alongside the more common Allosaurus.1

Lived

158 to 143 million years ago3

Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Colorado and Utah, USA, and Portugal1 3

Food

Meat1

Length

6 to 7 m1

Weight

900 kg to 1.36 tonnes1 2

Artist's life restoration of Ceratosaurus — How Ceratosaurus may have looked, by NobuTamura email:[email protected]. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Scientists still argue about colours and details.

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

Ceratosaurus is the only known meat-eating dinosaur that had a horn on its snout.2

Unlike other large theropods, Ceratosaurus had only three teeth in its premaxilla (the front of the upper jaw).2

The first nearly complete skeleton was found in 1883 by a Colorado farmer named Marshall Parker Felch.1

Ceratosaurus fossils are much rarer than those of Allosaurus, which lived at the same time.1

Some scientists think Ceratosaurus may have eaten aquatic animals like fish and turtles.1

All known Ceratosaurus individuals were found alone, so there is no evidence they hunted in groups.1

Myth buster

Myth: Ceratosaurus hunted in packs like wolves.

Truth: All known Ceratosaurus fossils were found alone, so scientists think it was a solitary hunter.1

For dino experts

Scientific name: Ceratosaurus
Named by: Marsh 18843
Group: Other meat-eaters
Family / clade: Ceratosauria3
Classification: Theropoda > Ceratosauria3
Age of the rocks: 158 to 143 million years ()3
Rock formations: Morrison, Tendaguru, Lourinhã3
Countries: USA, Portugal, Tanzania, Uruguay3
Fossil records: 29 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: The first Ceratosaurus fossil was found in 1883 by Colorado farmer Marshall Parker Felch. Scientist Othniel Charles Marsh studied the bones and named the dinosaur Ceratosaurus in 1884.1 3
Still debated: Scientists are not sure whether fossils found in Africa and South America truly belong to Ceratosaurus or to a different dinosaur.1

Where the facts come from

Ceratosaurus | Natural History Museum (nhm.ac.uk)
Ceratosaurus - Dinosaur National Monument (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)
Ceratosaurus in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

Every fact on this page has a number that points to its source. If we got something wrong, sorry, we are dino fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.