Meaning
Horn Faced Hell Heron
Length
up to 4 metres (12 feet)
Classification
Theropoda Marsh, 1881.
Tetanurae Gauthier, 1986.
Spinosauridae Stromer, 1915.
Baryonychinae Charig and Milner, 1986, sensu Sereno et al., 1998.
Ceratosuchopsini Barker et al 2021
Ceratosuchops inferodios Barker et al 2021
Locations
Ceratosuchops material was collected at beach level from an exposure of the Wessex Formation located just east of Chilton Chine.
Ceratosuchops was a theropod dinosaur, and is assumed to have been a fish eater, waiting on riverbanks, resting on its forelimbs until a large fish such as Scheenstia.
It walked on two legs.
Baryonychine distinguished by the presence of the following unique traits: premaxillae displaying a pair of bilaterally located antenarial tuberosities; narrow (reversal of the ancestral megalosauroid condition) and ventrally restricted subcondylar recess of the basioccipital; oval scars of the basisphenoid excavated by deep, elongate sulci; anteroposteriorly thick interbasipterygoidal web; supraoccipital dorsal process possessing a gently curving posteroventral surface in coronal section.
This taxon can be further separated from other baryonychines by the following combination of traits: presence of narial fossae on the premaxilla (as in cf. Suchomimus but not Baryonyx); short subnarial (maxillary) process of the premaxilla (as in Baryonyx but not cf. Suchomimus); lack of premaxillary sagittal crest (as in Baryonyx but not cf. Suchomimus); curved anterior margin of the dorsal facet of the paroccipital process (angular in Baryonyx and probably Riparovenator); posterolaterally directed paroccipital processes of the otoccipitals (more laterally directed in Baryonyx); exoccipital components of the occipital condyle closely spaced (as in Riparovenator and cf. Suchomimus but not Baryonyx); subcondylar recess lacking mediolaterally thick lateral crests (as in cf. Suchomimus
but not Baryonyx or Riparovenator); relatively stout supraoccipital dorsal process (as in Baryonyx but not cf. Suchomimus); lack of a dorsal extension of the basisphenoid recess under the basioccipital apron (recess extends dorsally in Baryonyx and Riparovenator).