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Carnotaurus
''Carnotaurus'' is a genus of large theropod dinosaur that lived in South America during the Late Cretaceous period, between about 72 and 69.9 million years ago. The only species is ''Carnotaurus sastrei''. Known from a single well-preserved skeleton, it is one of the best-understood theropods from the Southern Hemisphere. The skeleton, found in 1984, was uncovered in the Chubut Province of Argentina from rocks of the La Colonia Formation. Derived from the Latin ''carno ()'' ("flesh") and ''taurus'' ("bull"), the name ''Carnotaurus'' means "meat-eating bull", alluding to its bull-like horns. ''Carnotaurus'' is a derived member of the Abelisauridae, a group of large theropods that occupied the large predatorial niche in the southern Landmasses of Gondwana during the late Cretaceous. The phylogenetic relations of ''Carnotaurus'' are uncertain; it may have been closer to either ''Majungasaurus'' or ''Aucasaurus''.
''Carnotaurus'' was a lightly built, bipedal predator, measuring in length and weighing at least . As a theropod, ''Carnotaurus'' was highly specialized and distinctive. It had thick horns above the eyes, a feature unseen in all other carnivorous dinosaurs, and a very deep skull sitting on a muscular neck. ''Carnotaurus'' was further characterized by small, vestigial forelimbs and long and slender hindlimbs. The skeleton is preserved with extensive skin impressions, showing a mosaic of small, non-overlapping scales measuring approximately 5 mm in diameter. The mosaic was interrupted by large bumps that lined the sides of the animal, and there are no hints of feathers.
The distinctive horns and the muscular neck may have been used in fighting conspecifics. According to separate studies, rivaling individuals may have combated each other with quick head blows, by slow pushes with the upper sides of their skulls, or by ramming each other head-on, using their horns as shock absorbers. The feeding habits of ''Carnotaurus'' remain unclear: some studies suggest the animal was able to hunt down very large prey such as sauropods, while other studies find it preyed mainly on relatively small animals. ''Carnotaurus'' was well adapted for running and was possibly one of the fastest large theropods.
==Description==
''Carnotaurus'' was a large but lightly built predator.〔 The only known individual was about in length, making ''Carnotaurus'' one of the largest abelisaurids. Only ''Ekrixinatosaurus'' and possibly ''Abelisaurus'' may have been similar or larger in size, though the incomplete remains of these genera make size estimations imprecise. Its mass is estimated to have been and in separate studies that used different estimation methods. ''Carnotaurus'' was a highly specialized theropod, as seen especially in characteristics of the skull, the vertebrae and the forelimbs. The pelvis and hindlimbs, on the other hand, remained relatively conservative, resembling those of the more basal ''Ceratosaurus''. Both the pelvis and hindlimb bones were long and slender. The left thigh bone of the individual measures 103 cm in length, but shows an average diameter of only 11 cm.
抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』
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