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).