Open Paleo

Ceratosuchops

Barker et al., 2021 serr-AT-oh-SOO-kops

From Greek keras/keratos ('horn') + Latin suchus ('crocodile', from Greek) + ops ('face'), meaning 'horned crocodile face', in reference to the bony boss on the postorbital bone.

125.8–121.4 million years ago Barremian, Early Cretaceous
Early Cretaceous stages

Ceratosuchops is a genus of spinosaurid from the Early Cretaceous (Barremian) Wessex Formation of Britain. The type species is C. inferodios, known from skull fragments (a snout tip and a partial braincase) recovered between 2013-2017 from Chilton Chine on the Isle of Wight, and housed at the Dinosaur Isle Museum in Sandown. It was named in 2021 by a team consisting of Chris Tijani Barker, Darren Naish, David W. E. Hone, and colleagues, alongside Riparovenator milnerae.

Under dispute

Ceratosuchops inferodios is a baryonychine spinosaurid from the Wessex Formation of the Isle of Wight (Barker and colleagues, 2021), recovered as a baryonychine by later analyses (Rauhut and colleagues, 2025; Cau, 2025). Its own validity is not in doubt, but its relationship to the co-occurring Riparovenator milnerae is unsettled: Sereno and colleagues (2022) tentatively treated the two as a single taxon, Ceratosuchops, attributing their differences to individual variation, and Santos-Cubedo and colleagues (2023) followed that synonymy, whereas Barker and colleagues (2021) and Rauhut and colleagues (2025) kept them distinct and Cau (2025) left the question open. Because Ceratosuchops is the senior name, it is retained as valid regardless.

Diagnosis

  1. Premaxillae displaying a pair of bilaterally located antenarial tuberosities
  2. Narrow and ventrally restricted subcondylar recess of the basioccipital
  3. Oval scars of the basisphenoid excavated by deep, elongate sulci
  4. Anteroposteriorly thick interbasipterygoidal web
  5. Supraoccipital dorsal process possessing a gently curving posteroventral surface in coronal section

Species

Ceratosuchops inferodios Barker et al., 2021

Type species

From Latin, combining 'infernus' ('hell' or 'underworld') and Greek 'erodios' ('heron'), referencing the research team's inference that its ecology resembled that of modern herons, earning it the nickname 'hell heron'.

Holotype
IWCMS 2014.95.1, IWCMS 2014.95.2, IWCMS 2014.95.3, IWCMS 2014.95.5, IWCMS 2021.30 , Dinosaur Isle Museum
Material
Partial braincase, with referred snout tip and prefrontal.
Horizon
Wessex Formation, Barremian, Early Cretaceous , 125.8–121.4 million years ago
Locality
Chilton Chine, near Brighstone, Isle of Wight, United Kingdom

References

  1. Barker, C. T.; Hone, D. W. E.; Naish, D.; Cau, A.; Lockwood, J. A. F.; Foster, B.; Clarkin, C. E.; Schneider, P.; Gostling, N. J. (2021). New spinosaurids from the Wessex Formation (Early Cretaceous, UK) and the European origins of Spinosauridae. Scientific Reports 11(1). Springer Science and Business Media LLC. doi:10.1038/s41598-021-97870-8

    Erected Ceratosuchops inferodios, with Riparovenator, as a distinct baryonychine spinosaurid.

    barker2021a
  2. Sereno, P. C.; Myhrvold, N.; Henderson, D. M.; Fish, F. E.; Vidal, D.; Baumgart, S. L.; Keillor, T. M.; Formoso, K. K.; Conroy, L. L. (2022). Spinosaurus is not an aquatic dinosaur. eLife 11: e80092. doi:10.7554/eLife.80092

    Tentatively scored the Wessex baryonychine material as a single taxon, Ceratosuchops, attributing the differences to individual variation.

    sereno2022a
  3. Santos-Cubedo, A.; de Santisteban, C.; Poza, B.; Meseguer, S. (2023). A new spinosaurid dinosaur species from the Early Cretaceous of Cinctorres (Spain). Scientific Reports 13(1). Springer Science and Business Media LLC. doi:10.1038/s41598-023-33418-2

    Followed the synonymy of Sereno and colleagues (2022), counting Ceratosuchops but not Riparovenator among valid baryonychines.

    santos-cubedo2023a
  4. Rauhut, O. W. M.; Canudo, J. I.; Castanera, D. (2025). Revision of the theropod dinosaur Camarillasaurus cirugedae from the Early Cretaceous (Barremian) of Teruel province, Spain. Palaeontologia Electronica 28(3): 1-67. doi:10.26879/1543

    Recovered Ceratosuchops as a baryonychine spinosaurid, keeping it distinct from Riparovenator.

    rauhut2025a
  5. Cau, A.; Paterna, A. (2025). Beyond the Stromer's Riddle: the impact of lumping and splitting hypotheses on the systematics of the giant predatory dinosaurs from northern Africa. Italian Journal of Geosciences 144(2): 162-185. doi:10.3301/IJG.2025.10

    Left the Ceratosuchops–Riparovenator synonymy open, deferring to a future detailed comparison.

    cau2025a
  6. Jones, B. (2026). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs: Theropods. Princeton University Press.

    Source of the body length, mass, and hip height estimates, and the appearance features.

    jones2026c