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Dinosaur Home  A-Z Dinosaurs List Different Theropods Dinosaur
Different Theropods
Ceratosaurus:
Ceratosaurus was a powerful predator that walked on two strong legs, had
a strong, s-shaped neck, and had a short horn on its snout. It had a massive
tail, a bulky body, and heavy bones. Its arms were short and it had four-fingered
hands (a primitive configuration) with sharp claws. It also had large
eyes (and therefore probably had very good eyesight).Ceratosaurus was
15 to 20 feet long (4.5 to 6 m) long, weighing roughly 0.5 to 1 ton (500
kg to 1 tone). It had a skull a snout horn and two short brow ridges,
and bony knobs and ridges above its eyes and on the top of the head. This
common hunter had large, powerful jaws with long, sharp, teeth. Ceratosaurus was a large but common meat-eater from the late Jurassic period, about
156 million to 145 million years ago. Ceratosaurus was a carnivore, a
meat eater. It was a large, fierce predator that could kill even large
sauropods. Ceratosaurus may also have been a scavenger.
Coelophysis:
Coelophysis (pronounced SEE-low-FIE-sis) was a small, lightly-built dinosaur
that walked on two long legs. This predator was about 9 feet long (2.8
m). It had light, hollow bones (hence its name), a long, pointed head
with dozens of small, serrated teeth, three clawed fingers on its hands,
and a long neck.Two types of Coelophysis fossils have been found, 'robust'
and 'gracile.' These two forms probably represent males and females.Coelophysis
lived during the late Triassic period, roughly 210 million years ago;
it was one of the earliest-known dinosaurs. Coelophysis lived in what
was then a seasonally dry, desert-like environment, a savanna-type climate
perhaps like modern-day Kenya without the grasses (since flowering plants
hadn't evolved yet).Coelophysis was a carnivore, a meat eater. It may
also have been a scavenger. Coelophysis' fossilized stomach remains have
been found containing small reptiles, fish, and other Coelophysis bones
of different sizes, indicating that it was a cannibal.
Compsognathus:
Compsognathus was a bird-like dinosaur that walked on two long, thin legs;
it had three-toed feet. A long tail acted as a counterbalance and for
stability during fast turns. It had short arms with two clawed fingers
on each hand. Compsognathus had a small, pointed head with small, sharp
teeth, hollow bones, and a long, flexible neck.Compsognathus was from
28 inches-4.6 feet long (0.7-1.4 m), about 6.5 pounds (3 kg) and was about
the size of a chicken. Its femur (thigh bone) was only 4. 3 inches (11
cm) long. Compsognathus lived in the late Jurassic period, about 155 to
145 million years ago. Among the contemporaries of Compsognathus were
Coelurus and Ornitholestes.Compsognathus was a carnivore (a meat eater)
that caught and ate small animals, including insects and lizards. John
Ostrom found fossilized remains from a Compsognathus' stomach that contained
the skeleton of the fast-running lizard Bavarisaurus.
Deinonychus:
Deinonychus was a lightly built, fast-moving, agile, bipedal (walked on
two legs), bird-like dinosaur. It was built to kill. This meat-eater had
a curved, flexible neck and a big head with sharp, serrated teeth in very
powerful jaws. Each of its three fingers on each hand had large, sharp,
curved claws. It had four-toed feet; the second toe had a 5-inch (13-cm)
sickle-like claw, and the other toes had smaller claws. Its long tail
had bony rods running along the spine, giving it rigidity; the tail was
used for balance and fast turning ability. Deinonychus had a relatively
large brain and large, keen eyes.Deinonychus was about 10 feet long (3
m), 5 feet tall (1.5 m), and weighed up to 175 pounds (80 kg). This dinosaur
was roughly 4 ft (1.2 m) tall at the shoulder. Its femur (thigh bone)
was 31 cm long.Deinonychus lived during the Cretaceous period, about 110
to 100 million years ago. Among the contemporaries of Deinonychus were
Spinosaurus, Archaeornithomimus (another swift, bird-like theropod), Sauroplites
(an ankylosaurid, a plated herbivore), Sauropelta (a nodosaur, another
armored herbivore), Probactrosaurus (an iguanodontid), Titanosaurs (a
sauropod), and Tenontosaurus (a hypsilophodontid). Deinonychus was a carnivore,
a meat eater. It probably ate just about anything it could slash and tear
apart. When hunting in packs, Deinonychus could probably kill any prey
it desired.
Dilophosaurus:
Dilophosaurus was a double-crested lizard and it is speedy, slender, bipedal
(walked on two legs), meat-eater that lived during the early Jurassic
period. It was a theropod (a meat-eating dinosaur) about 20 feet (6 m)
long, about 5 feet (1.5 m) tall at the hip, and weighing about 650 to
1,000 pounds (300 kg to 450 kg).
It had two thin, bony, almost semi-circular crests on its head; these
may have been for mating displays. It had short arms with three-fingered
hands and strong legs with four-toed feet (one toe was a dewclaw). Both
fingers and toes had claws. It had hollow bones and an S-shaped, curved
neck. Dilophosaurus lived about 201 to 189 million years ago, during the
early Jurassic period. Among its contemporaries in North America during
this time, all smaller than Dilophosaurus, were:
• the meat-eaters Coelophysis (about 10 feet long), Syntarsus, and
Segisaurus
• the omnivores Massopondylus and Anchisaurus
• The plant-eaters Scutellosaurus and Ammosaurus.
Dilophosaurus was a carnivore, a meat eater. It had loosely attached jaws
which would have made killing animals with its teeth difficult. It must
have killed with its clawed arms and legs, and/or scavenged carcasses.
Eoraptor:
Eoraptor (pronounced EE-oh-RAP-tor) is one of the earliest known dinosaurs.
It was a very small carnivore (meat-eater) that lived during the late
Triassic period, about 228 million years ago. Recently, even older dinosaurs
have been found in Madagascar. Eoraptor was a small, lightly-built dinosaur
that walked on two long legs. It was about 3 feet long (1 m); it had light,
hollow bones, a long head with dozens of small, sharp teeth, and five
fingers on its grasping hands (two of the fingers on each hand were very
small). Eoraptor was a saurischian ("lizard-hipped") dinosaur,
a very primitive theropod, and a member of the infraorder Herrerasauria
(which includes Herrerasaurus, Staurikosaurus, Saltopus, and other very
early dinosaurs). The type species is Eoraptor lunensis (named by Paul
Sereno, Forster, Rogers and Monetta in 1993).Eoraptor lived during the
late Triassic period, roughly 228 million years ago. It is one of the
oldest dinosaurs yet found.Eoraptor was a carnivore, a meat eater. It
may also have been a scavenger.
Gallimimus:
Gallimimus was a fast-running dinosaur with a very long, thin, flattened,
toothless, horny beak, a small head, and a relatively large brain. The
bottom front part of its beak was shaped like a shovel. It had large eyes
positioned on opposite sites of its head, ruling out binocular vision
(depth perception). It had a long neck, long tail, and long legs. Gallimimus was about 13-20 ft (4-6 m) long, was 6.3 ft (1.9 m) tall at the hips,
and may have weighed about 970 pounds (440 kg).This oviraptorosaur had
short arms with three clawed fingers on each hand, and long legs with
three clawed toes on each. A long tail acted as a counterbalance and as
a stabilizer during fast turns. Its bones were hollow.Gallimimus lived
in the late Cretaceous period, about 75-70 million years ago.Gallimimus
may have been an omnivore, eating small animals (like insects and lizards),
eggs, and some plant material, by sieving them from mud with comb-like
plates in its mouth.
Giganotosaurus:
The longest meat-eating dinosaur yet discovered is Giganotosaurus, a 44-46
ft (13.5-14.3 m) long behemoth, who weighed about 8 tons and stood 12
feet tall (at the hips). It walked on two legs, had a brain the size of
a banana, and had enormous jaws with 8-inch long serrated teeth in a 6-foot
(1.8 m) long skull. Giganotosaurus was a theropod from the mid-Cretaceous,
living about 100-95 million years ago, toward the end of the Mesozoic
Era, the "Age of Reptiles".Giga-noto-saurus means "giant
southern reptile". Its fossil was unearthed in Argentina in 1994.
70 percent of the skeleton has been found. Near the Giganotosaurus, fossils
were found of 75-foot-long plant eaters, presumably victims of this Giganotosaurus. Giganotosaurus
lived about 95 million years ago, during the late Cretaceous period. This
was about 30 million years before Tyrannosaurus rex, which was among the
last of the dinosaur species alive before the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction
65 million years ago.
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