Ceratosaurus growth series

I don't normally use photograph composites here, but I don't have time to illustrate the (more) juvenile specimen right now and when scaled it shows a very nice growth series. Also, note that the adult is NOT a new specimen...it was described 10 years ago and discovered in the 1970's.

This shows the importance of doing reconstructions of every specimen I'd have to say. Anyways, the take-home message here is that the middle specimen is the USNM type (Smithsonian) and is what everyone thinks of when they think of Ceratosaurus. But 20-footers like that grow up to be something different and a bit more beastly.

Edit: Updated the pose and the silhouettes, and the comparison now includes a skeletal reconstruction of the juvenile rather than a photograph. I personally suspect that these are growth series of a single species, but currently there are several species names floating around in the literature and there is enough weirdness with Morrison stratigraphy that I wouldn't bet money on it. Even at worst we would probably be looking at close relatives, possibly even one species that evolved from an earlier one, so the growth series will probably hold up either way.