STL Science Center

STL Science Center

02 June 2016

Classic Popularity

Popularity of theropods among dinosaur fans is usually superficially based on enormous bodies or hideous grotesqueness or some kind of ornamentation. Carnotaurus has all of those things. Some people are intrigued by the horns and other rugosities on the skull and some by the large frame or the rather large mouth. The weirdness of the forelimbs also appears to intrigue many people. The forelimbs we discussed briefly before and throughout we have talked about the big head, big mouth, and big body of Carnotaurus. The dinosaur's horns are very interesting parts of their anatomy. Many of nature's horns and rugosities are embedded in the skin or at least originate from the skin, though there are notable exceptions like horns that are bone. The horns of Carnotaurus are bone and therefore originate from the skull rather than from the skin. Those horns are sometimes flimsy in the best interpretations of Carnotaurus. Are these interpretations of Carnotaurus not the best products of the popularity of the dinosaur, flimsy horns and all?

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