Dilophosaurus is another one of the Jurassic Park celebrities, being one of the secondary antagonists in the 1993 blockbuster. The dinosaur, as many of you guys probably know, was portrayed inaccurately. The real Dilophosaurus is still being uncovered, as remains are fragmentary and the whole theropod family tree is turning upside-down.
Let’s get the facts down. Dilophosaurus did not have a frill (as far as we can tell) nor poisonous spit; it was actually very large and had no need for poison because a dilophosaur could take down most of the animals that lived in the Early Jurassic. Dilophosaurus was a member of the Coelophysoidea, a group of generally small and slender theropods that lived in the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic periods, around 210 to a 195 mya.
Dilophosaurus was one of the few members in its family to achieve large and bulky proportions. The only others in its family were Sarcosaurus, Dracovenator, Sinosaurus, and Gojirasaurus. These were all very primitive theropods and were probably the ancestors of both Carnotaurus and T-rex, before the split between ceratosaurs and tetanurans occured. The tetanuran side started out with Cryolophosaurus, a dinosaur that was a lot like Dilophosaurus, but slightly different. It had a forward facing pompadour crest, giving it the nickname “Elvisaurus” after Elvis Presley.
Dilophosaurus died out at the end of the Early Jurassic as their descendants the ceratosaurs and megalosaurs started to take over the roles of hypercarnivore. During this time, smaller bird-like dinosaurs started to emerge, outsmarting and outcompeting the earlier coelophysids, wiping out all of Dilophosaurus’s family.
Anay Ganesh 