Dilophosaurus wetherilli die-LOH-foh-SOR-us
"Two-crested lizard"
You 1.8 m (5.9 ft) tall
Dilophosaurus 7 m (23 ft) long
4 people holding hands
- Length
- 7 m (23 ft) — About 7 m long, ~400 kg — one of the earliest large carnivorous dinosaurs.
- Period
- Early Jurassic (193–183 Mya)
- Place
- North America · Arizona
- Food
- Carnivore — Smaller prey, possibly including early mammals and small dinosaurs.
Dilophosaurus had two thin parallel crests on top of its head — too thin to be weapons, almost certainly used for display. It lived 50 million years before Velociraptor, in the Early Jurassic when dinosaurs were just becoming the dominant large land animals. The frilled, venom-spitting version from Jurassic Park is pure fiction — the real animal was as big as a cow and had no frill.
What we know
- Two thin, paired crests on top of the skull — display structures.
- One of the largest predators of the Early Jurassic.
- Slender build with long legs and a long tail.
- No fossil evidence of a frill or venom — those are Jurassic Park inventions.
What we guess
- Color and pattern of the crests — likely bright in life, but no preserved color data.
- Whether it hunted alone or in groups — multiple skeletons have been found together but evidence is thin.
- Whether the small size of the upper teeth means it specialized in fish or small prey.