Characteristics

The most easily distinguishing feature about Ceratosaurus was the horn on the snout it’s named after. Formed from the fusion of the left and right nasal bones, iIt likely served no functional purpose aside from identifying individuals and attracting mates. It had a narrow skull with 30 very long 9 centimeter serrated teeth that were almost longer than the lower jaw It had long legs and tail to maintain speed when running in bursts of speeds around 25- 30 miles. It had a thin streamlined body and short forelimbs to reduce weight Ceratosaurus was 6 meters long. On Ceratosaurus back were small osteoderms that ran along it’s back possibly to protect itself from larger theropods or members of it’s own species. Ceratosaurus scavenged or hunted sickly or juvenile sauropods such as Diplodocus, Pleurocoelus, Apatosaurus, and Camarasaurus. But mostly hunted smaller dinosaurs like Camptosaurus, Dryosaurus, and Nanosaurus that it would chase after. Allosaurus was another large theropod coexisting with Ceratosaurus, though it was larger with it being hypothesized that Allosarus stole carrion from Ceratosaurus like how lions do so to Hyenas. Fossils of the two carnivores are never found in the same places, meaning they held massive areas of territory from each other and in area’s where they are found together Ceratosaurs outnumber Allosaurs 7.5 to 1.