Carnotaurus sastrei
Carnotaurus for kids
Carnotaurus was a fast meat eater with short horns, extremely small arms, and fossil skin impressions.
The essentials
What should you know about this dinosaur?
- Length: 8 m long
- Height: about 2.7 m tall
- Weight: about 1.5 tonnes
- Food: Meat eater
- Time: Cretaceous
- Region: Argentina
How large was Carnotaurus
The height line shows head and body. The eight-meter length runs through back, legs, and tail.
Compare in the toolLook a little closer
More about Carnotaurus
Short chapters for curious children and grown-ups who want to read along.
Carnotaurus
Carnotaurus looks as if a predatory dinosaur got bull horns. Two short, thick horns sat above the eyes, the skull was deep, and the arms were almost unbelievably small. This meat eater lived in Argentina near the end of the Cretaceous. Fossils even preserve scaly skin impressions. The name means meat-eating bull. Carnotaurus is worth a double look: horns in front, power tail behind, tiny arms in between.
Size
Carnotaurus was about eight meters long. It was not the longest predator, but its outline is instantly strong: deep skull, short horns, long legs, very small arms. The body was fairly light for its length, with power in the hips and tail. From the side, it feels like a Cretaceous sprinter rather than a heavy bone crusher.
8 m long2.7 m talldeep skull
Food
Carnotaurus hunted in a world of South American dinosaurs. Small and medium animals, young sauropods, or weakened plant eaters fit a predator with a quick body and strong head. Its teeth were not giant T-Rex teeth, but they sat in jaws that could snap fast. This dinosaur leaned on speed and surprise, not big arms.
meat eaterquick jawssouthern Cretaceous
Habitat
Carnotaurus comes from Argentina, from rocks of the Late Cretaceous. Its world was far from the famous North American T-Rex lands. Rivers, open areas, and different animal communities filled the region. Part of its magic: southern predators evolved their own shapes, with horns, a short deep face, and arms reduced almost to nothing.
ArgentinaLate CretaceousSouthern Hemisphere
Protection
The horns of Carnotaurus sat above the eyes and made the head unforgettable. They were not long spears like Triceratops horns. Together with the deep skull, they could help with display, pushing, or recognizing its own kind. The arms added very little; they were tiny. Carnotaurus put the memorable gear on the head and in the running body.
short hornstiny armsdeep head
Movement
Carnotaurus had a powerful tail with large muscle attachments. That tail helped pull the legs and made quick steps possible. The hind legs were long, while the arms mattered little for running. When this dinosaur moved out, power came from hips, thighs, and tail. It is one of the clearest sprinting shapes among big meat eaters.
powerful taillong legsquick runner
Did you know?
Carnotaurus preserves skin impressions, and those impressions show scales. Those impressions are fossil treasure, because many dinosaurs are known mostly from bones. Here the bull dinosaur gets a real surface: not just horns and skeleton, but skin texture. Add the tiny arms, and you get a predator no other big hunter can simply copy.
skin impressionsscalesmeat-eating bull
about 2.7 m tall
Beside a child, Carnotaurus shows a strange mix: head roughly house-tall, body long like a small bus, horns over the eyes, and arms that almost disappear. The height is big, but the outline is the real attention-grabber.