Description
The horned Ceratosaurus is one of the most distinctive meat-eating dinosaurs. This medium-sized predator lived in North America and Europe during the Jurassic, around 150 million years ago.
- History: Ceratosaurus was named in 1884 by the eminent American paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh of Yale University. Marsh based his description on an almost complete skeleton from Colorado. In reference to its most distinctive feature, Marsh named it Ceratosaurus, meaning ‘horned lizard’, and gave it the species name C. nasicornis, meaning ‘ornamental nose’.
- Scientific Name: Ceratosaurus nasicornis
- Characteristics: Ceratosaurus was a slender carnivore with a distinctive large skull with a blade-like horn on its snout and a small horn over each eye. It walked on two long legs and had three-toed feet and sharp curved claws. It had very short but powerful arms with four-fingered hands, although only three fingers had claws. It had rows of small bony plates embedded in the skin of its neck and back, and had a long tail to help it stay balanced. All of these details can be found on Safari Limited’s Ceratosaurus toy. The largest specimens suggest adults reached up to 22 feet long, though this figure is much smaller.
- Size: This Ceratosaurus toy is 7.75 inches long and 4 inches high.
- The Ceratosaurus is part of the Wild Safari® Prehistoric World collection
- All of Safari Limited’s products are Non-toxic and BPA free
