Stem-Bird Files: So'ogue'i

Abelisauria>Abelisauridae>Brachyrostra>Carnotaurini>Carnotaurus>C.sastrei
Bonaparte, 1985
Time: Early Maastrichtian (72-69.9 million years ago)
Length: 7.3 meters (23.9ft) on the holotype specimen.
Height: ~2.35 meters (7.7ft) at the hip on the holotype specimen.
Weight: Around 1.3-1.5t, based on the holotype specimen.
Habitat: The La Colonia Formation of Chubut, Argentina - South America.
Ecology and hunting habits: Medium-sized to large terrestrial carnivore, the apex predator of its environment. Like its distant relatives, phorusracids, Carnotaurus ran after swift, agile prey and killed it with a quick bite. A high degree of flexibility on the lower jaw compared to most theropods indicates that it most likely would have swallowed smaller creatures whole; some argue that the quick and bloodloss-inducing bites, combined with the animal's impressive speed, could have been used to attack much larger animals, such as sauropods.
Diet: Only an indeterminate hadrosaurid is known from the La Colonia Formation, but as indicated by nearby fossil sites, it likely would also have fed on unelangiine dromaeosaurs, alvarezsaurids, noasaurids, and juvenile titanosaurs.
Locomotion: With its long legs and massive caudofemoralis muscle, Carnotaurus could likely run at top speeds of 30 mph (48 km/h). However, the reduced size of other muscles indicate that it would not have been able to make sharp turns, and a chase from this animal probably consisted of one short burst of speed.
Competition: With no other large predators in the area, Carnotaurus probably did not have competition other than its own species.
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Requested by . So'oguéi (dA doesn't allow the proper spelling on the title) is Guaraní for ''meat bull''.

I do not take credit for the skeletal references or silhouettes of any of these animals (I only fill them out with the life reconstruction and complement it with the info sheets).