What are ceratosaurs?
Q: What are ceratosaurs?
A: Ceratosaurs are a group of theropod dinosaurs.
Q: How are ceratosaurs defined?
A: Ceratosaurs are defined as "all theropods sharing a more recent common ancestry with Ceratosaurus than with birds".
Q: Which theropods are included in Ceratosauria?
A: Ceratosauria includes the Upper Jurassic to Upper Cretaceous theropods Ceratosaurus, Elaphrosaurus and Abelisaurus, found mainly in the southern hemisphere.
Q: What is the earliest known ceratosaur?
A: The earliest known ceratosaur is Eoabelisaurus from the Middle Jurassic of Patagonia.
Q: What does the almost complete Eoabelisaurus skeleton reveal?
A: The almost complete skeleton of Eoabelisaurus shows the earliest evolutionary stages of the distinctive abelisaurid modification of the forelimb.
Q: Which theropods were originally included in Ceratosauria but later excluded?
A: Originally, Ceratosauria included the Upper Triassic to Lower Jurassic Coelophysis and Dilophosaurus, but recent studies have shown that they do not form a natural group with other ceratosaurs, and so they are excluded from this group.
Q: In which hemisphere are the ceratosaurs mainly found?
A: The ceratosaurs are mainly found in the southern hemisphere.
