It had a face only a mother could love. The Ceratosaurus is the type of dinosaur that might terrorize you in your dreams: A mouth full of razor-sharp teeth; a horn at the tip of its nose; horny protrusions atop each eye. Its fossils may be scarce, but those features also make them instantly recognizable.
Ceratosaurus specimens are indeed rare. In fact, until recent decades, the only intact skeleton stood at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, says Matthew Carrano, a paleontologist and curator at the Smithsonian Institution. But in spite of that, the species has made a serious impression on pop culture. “It has a horn that’s unique for a carnivorous dinosaur, which gave it some personality,” says Carrano. “And, as a result, it’s appeared in children’s books, [the 1925 film] The Lost World and in Jurassic Park III.”
