Carnotaurus Facts for Kids
KAR-noh-TOR-us · its name means “meat-eating bull”
A meat-eater with two horns like a bull and very tiny arms.
- 📏 26 ft8 m1 long
- ⚖️ weight: not yet checked
- 🕰️ the Cretaceous
- 🍽️ meat
Carnotaurus had two horns on its head, like a bull. Its arms were very tiny. It lived in South America.
Carnotaurus had two thick horns above its eyes and arms even shorter than T. rex's. It had long, strong legs and may have been one of the faster big meat-eaters.
Carnotaurus is known from one very well kept skeleton found in Patagonia, which even preserved patches of its skin: small scales with bigger bumps in rows. Its name means meat-eating bull. Its arms were so short that its lower arm bones were tiny.
Every dinosaur number is scientists’ best guess from bones, so each one says where it came from.
How big was Carnotaurus?
Carnotaurus in numbers
| Length (nose to tail) | 26 ft8 m1scientists' estimate |
|---|---|
| Height at the hips | no checked number yet |
| Weight | no checked number yet |
| When it lived | no checked number yet |
| What it ate | other dinosaurs |
| Fossils found in | Patagonia, in Argentina |
| What kind | a theropod: a two-legged dinosaur, the group birds came from |
Wow!
- Its name means meat-eating bull.
- Scientists found prints of its scaly skin.
- Its arms were even shorter than T. rex's.
🦴 Carnotaurus’s bones
Books about Carnotaurus, free at the library
Ask a grown-up to tap the button: it shows where to borrow a book about Carnotaurus for free.
Where was the land back then?
The continents were in different places when Carnotaurus lived, in the Cretaceous. Open Planet Earth, pick Drifting continents, and slide back in time to see where the land was.
Its neighbours in time
Where these numbers come from
- Wikidata, from the Natural History Museum's Dino Directory, checked 30 October 2026.
- Wikidata, Carnotaurus (Q18510948), checked 30 October 2026.
To read more: the Natural History Museum’s Dino Directory (see also, not copied).