Dilophosaurus, Scutellosaurus - Art Print 13" x 19"
Jurassic period - 208-200 million years ago

Original oil painting by Josef Moravec. The painting is in the dinosaur art collection of Dinosaur Corporation. Size 20" x 16".

Jurassic Period - DILOPHOSAURUS wetherilli
Dilophosaurus was a theropod dinosaur from the Early Jurassic Period. The name is (pronounced[help] /daɪˌlɒfəˈsɔrəs/ ("dy-LOH-fo-sawr-us") meaning 'two-crested lizard', because it had two crests (Greek di meaning 'two', lophos meaning 'crest' and sauros meaning 'lizard').


Dilophosaurus is considered to be a ceratosaur, the earliest and most 'primitive' of the theropod groups. It was made famous in the movie "Jurassic Park", but real Dilophosaurus was much larger, and there is no evidence, it had neck frills or poison glands. This medium-sized theropod was the largest predator in its environment, a powerful meat-eating animal, that ate smaller plant-eating dinosaurs. It was probably a group animal, since three specimens were found together in Arizona, USA. Dilophosaurus was quick and probably moved around in small herds of family groups, covering a lot of territory. Dilophosaurus was a predator with a very unusual skull. It had a pair of semicircular bony crests, that rose vertically on either side of the skull. These crests were very thin in places and were given support by vertical struts of bone. The tip of each crest narrowed into a spike at the back of the skull. The significance of the crests is still unknown; they probably served dual purposes: as mating displays and as heat radiators to cool the blood and brain, allowing to pursue prey in hot environments. This effective desert predator was a speedy, slender and bipedual (walked on two muscular legs), leaving bird-like footprints on land. Body about the weight of a small horse with long, strong hind legs with four-toed feet, short forelimbs with three-fingered hands that were flexible, with an opposable thumb. Its hind legs, feet, were armed with very powerful claws, that were probably used as weapons as well as for locomotion. Dilophosaurus was probably a very rapid runner. It was carnivore, but it had loosely attached jaws which would have made killing animals with its teeth difficult. It must have killed with its clawed arms and legs.
TIME - 208 - 194 MYA, Early Jurassic period.
RANGE - USA (Arizona).
DIET - Carnivore (meat eater)
SIZE - Juvenile 20ft (6m) long.