Carnotaurus - Paleobiology

Paleobiology

Analysis of the jaw design of Carnotaurus suggests that the animal was capable of fast-moving bites, but not strong ones. It appears that the muscles that closed the jaws were important for reducing stresses on the skull during biting; the bite was weaker but faster than that of Allosaurus; Carnotaurus may have been capable of making hatchet-like attacks with its head. Robert Bakker suggested that the upper jaw was used like a club, and that the allosaur-like adaption of the skull made it capable of preying on large sauropods.. Some of the sutures in the skull and lower jaw have been interpreted as allowing a great degree of cranial kinesis, perhaps more than any other dinosaur. Only the anterior portion of the skull would have been mobile; the posterior part, including the eyes, would have been stable. Studies of the femur of Carnotaurus suggest that it was fast and could run down prey. Studies of its tail suggest it could have been the fastest non-avian dinosaur ever, with a top speed of over 50 km/h (31 mph). It has been proposed that Carnotaurus used its horns as weapons when fighting conspecifics in a manner similar to rams. There is no evidence of interlocking structures, so it could not spar in a manner similar to deer. One study suggested that the expaxial musculature of Carnotaurus could have had a shock-absorbing function as in modern butting mammals, but a later study found the skull could not have survived use of the horns for butting. Another suggested function of the horns is to injure or kill small prey.