Why is Everyone Obsessed with Carnotaurus? (Part One)

 

Why is Everyone Obsessed with Carnotaurus? (Part One)

 

With a new Jurassic World movie on the horizon in this year’s lineup of summer blockbusters, I am again thinking about the franchise, and dinosaur movies in general. I found myself asking a question about a particular species of dinosaur which has led to something more akin to my “Complete Cinematic History of Dinosaurs” series. Carnotaurus is a part of the Jurassic franchise, and has been around for a while now, but seriously…why do people go head over heels for this dino? What is it about Carnotaurus sastrei that has made it into one of the most popular carnivorous dinosaurs in this modern age? The history of this creature may surprise you, and while I could assume most readers will have no idea what a Carnotaurus is or even looks like, with the financial success of the Jurassic World movies over the past decade and the species popping up in so many new pieces of dinosaur media, I don’t think it’s as niche of a dinosaur as it used to be—as in, no longer one only your six-year-old fanatical cousin can name. 

The first time I heard the name Carnotaurus was from the ominous narration by Ben Gazzara for TLC’s docuseries PaleoWorld (1994). In the second episode of the first season, titled “Carnosaurs” on the VHS tape, various large meat-eating dinosaurs are examined, and one of the newer examples is a South American fossil with a distinctly different look from the usual tyrannosaurs that hog the spotlight. Carnotaurus, meaning “flesh bull” or, more precisely, “meat-eating bull”, gets its name from the fact that its narrow jaws are full of serrated teeth designed for devouring other dinosaurs, and the top of its head is crowned with two thick horns. These horns stick out above its eyes, not unlike a bull, but are much shorter, and their purpose is unclear. At the time, the fossil had only been described a decade earlier, and was still not fully understood.

There are three things I remember best about Carnotaurus in this episode. 1) A piece of artwork by Mark Hallett of two allosaurs fighting is used to demonstrate the horns above its eyes—a picture that already doesn’t really depict Allosaurus and the crests on its head accurately, but then it completely misrepresents Carnotaurus, which was an abelisaurid, not an allosaurid. 2) An illustrated forward-facing shot of its head (more accurate than the allosaur moment, but still a bit off) is shown with the animal’s lower jaws splayed wide open (which it could do thanks to a hinge in the bones), and it looks cursed. 3) There’s a brief computer-generated animation of the full-bodied animal walking like a robot in a black void. This last one is probably the most accurate representation from the episode, but a lot of interesting interpretations of the creature were to come in many forms beyond this point.

Before we continue looking at Carnotaurus representation in media, let me give you a clearer idea of the real animal, because paleontologists now have a pretty good idea of what Carnotaurus is and how it lived 75 million years ago. You know how T. rex has famously small arms compared to the rest of its body? Carnotaurus makes Rexy and her ancestors look like orangutans by comparison! Okay, that was an extreme exaggeration, but a) I couldn’t help it, and b) the fact is, Carnotaurus had such tiny arms that they probably couldn’t do much with them at all. Reaching an adult size of twenty-five feet in length, it was also much smaller than many of the other carnosaurs of the Cretaceous, such as Giganotosaurus (which was also from South America). Skin impressions show it definitely had bumpy hide, but even to this day, no one is quite sure whether it was an active hunter of large prey or ate smaller creatures because of its relatively weak jaws, and the exact function of those horns remains a mystery, as well.

After its PaleoWorld introduction, Carnotaurus popped up not on television or in movie theatres next, but on bookshelves. Michael Crichton, ever at the cutting edge of scientific research, wanted some new species to populate his sequel to his novel Jurassic Park, and knowing director Steven Spielberg wanted to adapt The Lost World (1995) as he had done with the first book, maybe he felt pressured to deliver something that could top the venom-spitting Dilophosaurus and deadly intelligent Velociraptor. A pair of Carnotauruses antagonize the heroes of the story, with the ability to change their skin colour like chameleons. This made them decidedly more lizard-like than bird-like (as several species were depicted in both books), but they are described as being quite a bit smaller than their real full-grown size, only standing about seven feet high. This entirely speculative trait would later be given to the hybrid monstrosity in Jurassic World: the Indominous Rex.

The meat-eating bull made a brief appearance in the documentary miniseries When Dinosaurs Ruled (1999), a successor to PaleoWorld, but its next appearance was its biggest, and remains so to this day, in Disney’s CGI extravaganza Dinosaur (2000). T. rex was swapped out in favour of a large predator that was new, looked different, and would terrify children. This Carnotaurus, or “Carnotaur” (sans “us”) as it’s called by the herbivorous protagonists, does not look or act like the real animal. T. rex was part of the original plan, but at the last minute they switched it to Carnotaurus, probably because those brow horns and osteoderms (thick scales covering its body) made it look even more vicious, so what they ended up with was a very tyrannosaur-like Carnotaur, with a heavy, robust body and a massive skull.

The way the Carnotaur makes its entrance is something I will never forget. A baby Parasaurolophus chasing a dragonfly happens across the lurking predator in the trees, realizes the danger, and runs away in panic, alerting a huge herd of dinosaurs to the impending threat. We hear the heavy footsteps, see a glimpse through the foliage, and then BOOM, the beast explodes out of the forest roaring and running at full force. The first time I saw it happen on the big screen it terrified me, and I would rewind my VHS tape and replay this opening scene over and over with the volume turned all the way up. Even though Dinosaur regresses to more typical family fare when the herbivores start speaking and the story becomes about another herd trying to reach the nesting grounds, this opening is as ferocious and cinematic as any dinosaur film has ever managed to be.

This particular Carnotaurus comes in a pair at the movie's midpoint, with one being quite a bit larger than the other (presumably a male/female couple), and though the design is inaccurate, the red colour scheme, along with additional spikes and bumps all over its back, and that tail ending in what looks like a chainsaw (probably meant to evoke the real spiny tailed lizard) plays right into its devilish appearance. Though both Carnotaurs end up dead by the end, with one buried in a cave-in and the other toppling off a cliff, they managed to make a few memorable kills and haunted the nightmares of most 2000s kids for years to come. The fascination didn’t necessarily begin with Dinosaur, but I think it’s where the greatest exposure to mainstream audiences first occurred, and from that point on, Carnotaurus became ubiquitous. Next time, I’ll run through more appearances and try to figure out why the world has grown to love Carnotaurus so much. 

 

Part Two:

https://cccmovies.blogspot.com/2025/06/carnotaurus-in-media-part-two.html