Ceratosaurus, the "Horned Lizard," was not a creature of size, as shown by its length of about six meters  and height of two meters, but it  compensated its size with ferocity.  Unlike other theropods, Ceratosaurus possessed an abnormally large skull  in proportion to its body. Its nasal horn and brow crests likely  functioned as mechanisms to attract  mates, and it probably dueled with  competiting males over a female. For  protection, Ceratosaurus featured a row of small osteoderms on its back, acting as dermal armor. Since its  discovery during the famous Bone  Wars of Edward Drinker Cope and  Othniel Charles Marsh, a wide range  of Ceratosaurus growth stages have  been discovered, cementing it as one  of the dinosaurs with a more  complete fossilized record of its  life stages.  Roaming the lands of North America  and present day Portugal from the Kimmeridgian to the Tithonian eras of the Late Jurassic Period, the Ceratosaurus hunted around  waterways and in underbrush, feeding on small herbivores like Dryosaurus.  This hunting pattern represents a  different niche than those occupied  by larger contemporary carnivores  like Torvosaurus (which hunted  bigger prey in the same wet and  forested areas) and Allosaurus  (which also hunted big prey but in  drier and more open areas).