Carnotaurus: Bumpy or Spiky?
Carnotaurus (Up-to-Date Version, 2025)
Artist: Lawrence Lin
The name carnotaurus means meat-eating bull, which comes from the horns on its head that closely resemble that of a bull. The only known fossil of the Carnotaurus is almost completely intact, meaning that paleontologists have a thorough idea of how the creature looked just off of one skeleton. In fact, the fossil is so intact that skin impressions were found in surrounding rocks, where shallow holes could be found. This indicates that the skin of the Carnotaurus had bumps across its back, with increasing concentration behind the neck. This fact led to many reconstructions to incorporate the feature, although they may not be the most accurate. For what we know, the assortment and areas that the bumps would appear on the back were random, but most of media depictions showed clear patterns. For example, in both Disney's Dinosaur and Jurassic World, the bumps were somewhat converted into spike-like formations and appeared in rows along the back. I find this design to be extremely shallow, as it may look more menacing to some people, but it really is an overused design. In reality, the Carnotaurus was a stocky carnivore, whose menacing look comes from its horns, not spikes on its back.
Scattered Bumps on Carnotaurus back (more accurate)
Uniformly Spiked Carnotaurus Back (Jurassic World Evolution)
Works Cited
Photo of a Carnotaurus skeleton taken at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles on April 15, 2017, by Dawn Pedersen. Licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Image: “CarnoNull.png” (transparent Carnotaurus null-skin) from the Jurassic World Evolution Wiki (Fandom), licensed under CC BY-SA.