Ceratosaurus

Ceratosaurus was a medium sized carnivore that lived at the same time as the larger Allosaurus, in the Late Jurassic period. However, it also lived some millions of years before the emergence of the successful allosauroids, being of the more primitive four fingered Ceratosauria. What makes it different and distinctive is the large horn on top of its nose and the two horns over its eyes. About 100 years ago, when it was first discovered, it was one of the most well-known dinosaurs. Another unusual feature is that Ceratosaurus had four fingers on its hands, instead of the more common three among the other large meat-eaters. This is typically an indication that this theropod is relatively primitive, whose ancestral relatives heark back to the earlier times of the Mid Triassic to Mid Jurassic periods when coelophysoideans and ceratosaurians were much more prevalent. Allosaurids and megalosaurian carnosaurs, both kinds tetanurans, were much more advanced, with greater speed and intelligence, as well as the ability in at least allosaurids to form packs.

It is probable that the Ceratosaurus ended up being sidelined by the Allosaurus in North America, as evidenced by the fact that Ceratosaurus is the rarest fossil theropod genus present in the magnificent Cleveland Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry. It probably became a prowler of the forest, using its terrifying dentition when ambushing smaller Dinosaurs.

This information is given about Ceratosaurus in Jurassic Park: Explorer:
 * Ceratosaurus - small and more bird-like than it's cousin Allosaurus.
 * Ceratosaurus was named for the single horn on its snout.
 * It was probably a scavenger, but may have also hunted aquatic prey.

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Creation
Ceartosaurus was created by InGen in their compound on Isla Sorna where they were taken care of by the workers there. Like all of InGen's cloned theropods, Ceratosaurus had pronated hands. The clones had a bright red head and a yellow body with black striping. Ceratosaurus was not planned for Jurassic Park.

In the wild
When Hurricane Clarissa struck Isla Sorna, the InGen workers abandoned the island. The Ceratosaurs that were under their care were either freed by their caretakers or escaped on their own. In the wild, one of the ways Ceratosaurs countered the Lysine contingency was by eating herbivorous dinosaurs who in turn ate lysine rich plants.

Ceratosaurus lived in the northern portion of the island.

Isla Sorna Incident (2001)
A Ceratosaurus encountered Dr. Alan Grant and the Kirby family on a riverbank when they were digging through Spinosaurus dung. The humans thought it would attack them, but instead it went away, having been detoured by the Spinosaurus dung that was on them.

Production and development
The cloned Ceratosaurus has a color scheme similar to the Carnotaurus in Disney's Dinosaur that was released a year before. It also has similarities to the Ceratosaurus in the toy line Die-Cast: Jurassic Park (see the "Toys" tab for a picture).

Gallery

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Jurassic Park III: Park Builder
Ceratosaurus can be created in Jurassic Park III: Park Builder.

Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis
see Ceratosaurus/Operation Genesis

Ceratosaurus is available as a two-star, small carnivore in the game Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis. Its appearance is based on the movie. However, Ceratosaurus‘ upper jaw is actually smaller than the movie's design.

Ceratosaurus hunts larger herbivores in packs or even by itself for that matter. It is known to posses cannibalism when no other food is around. Ceratosaurus can coexist with the Albertosaurus, Dilophosaurus and Allosaurus (though they do fear it and flee when it is near) and even with smaller carnivores like Velociraptor, but this only occurs when they are not hungry or attacking each other. However with the smaller carnivores like Velociraptor the Ceratosaurus coexists either way and can even share its meals among the smaller theropods.

Jurassic Park: Explorer
Ceratosaurus is featured in the DVD game Jurassic Park: Explorer. A player earns a dinosaur when he/she wins a minigame, when the earned dinosaur is a Ceratosaurus this video will be shown. It is stated that Ceratosaurus was a cousin to Allosaurus, when actually both dinosaurs are distantly related.

Jurassic Park: Builder
Ceratosaurus/Builder

Ceratosaurus is one of the available dinosaurs in the IOS application, Jurassic Park: Builder.


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Die-Cast: Jurassic Park
With the release of the Jurassic Park film in 1993, the Die-Cast: Jurassic Park toy line was released. It contained a metal Ceratosaurus action figure. The package also contained a Collector card featuring Ceratosaurus (Nr. 19 of the Jurassic Park Collector Cards). The Ceratosaurus has a red head and lighter (green) body.

Jurassic Park: Chaos Effect
A Ceratosaurus figure was originally going to appear in the toy line Jurassic Park: Chaos Effect, but it was scrapped and many of its features were added on to the Paradeinonychus of the same line.

Jurassic World
A light and sound Ceratosaurus figure will be part of the Jurassic World toy line. It resembles the creature, and sports the same coloration, seen in. Pressing its wound causes the toy to roar and pushing down its tail causes it due to the same action plus biting in a downward motion. It uses the roars of the Tyrannosaurus rex from the films.