Dilophosaurus

Dilophosaurus is a genus of theropod dinosaurs that lived in what is now North America during the Early Jurassic, about 186 million years ago. Three skeletons were discovered in northern Arizona in 1940, and the two best preserved were collected in 1942. The most complete specimen became the holotype of a new species in the genus Megalosaurus, named M. wetherilli by Samuel P. Welles in 1954. Welles found a larger skeleton in the same region belonging to the same species in 1964. Realizing it bore crests on its skull, he assigned the species to the new genus Dilophosaurus in 1970, as Dilophosaurus wetherilli. The genus name means "two-crested lizard", and the species name honors John Wetherill, an explorer and amateur archeologist. Further specimens have since been found, including an infant. Fossil footprints have also been attributed to the animal, including resting traces. Another species, Dilophosaurus sinensis from China, was named in 1993, but was later found to belong to the genus Sinosaurus.

Dilophosaurus

Eduard Solà · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
NeotheropodaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Theropoda
Life habit
ground dwelling, solitaryPBDB, for Theropoda
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Theropoda
Length
7 mWikidata
Mass
400 kgWikidata

Time the record covers

At most 18 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 201.4 Mya and 184.2 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Late Triassic — about 0 of 14 occurrencesEarly Jurassic — about 14 of 14 occurrencesEarly Jurassic202–201 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences201–201 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences201–200 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences200–199 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences199–199 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences199–198 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences198–198 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences198–197 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences197–196 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences196–196 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences196–195 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences195–195 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences195–194 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences194–193 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences193–193 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences193–192 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences192–192 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences192–191 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences191–190 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences190–190 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences190–189 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences189–189 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences189–188 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences188–187 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences187–187 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences187–186 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences186–186 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences186–185 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences185–184 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences184–184 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences201.9 Mya183.7 Mya

14 occurrences of Dilophosaurus on record, most of them in the Early Jurassic. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

14 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

2 formations

Kayenta — 36.15°N, 110.32°WKayenta — 35.67°N, 111.17°WKayenta — 35.68°N, 111.03°WKayenta — 36.07°N, 111.27°WKayenta — 35.74°N, 111.07°WKayenta — 35.75°N, 111.08°WKayenta — 37.00°N, 110.70°WKayenta — 38.70°N, 109.55°WDharmaram — 19.25°N, 79.53°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Dilophosaurus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Dilophosaurus and its relatives

Early Jurassic

Where Dilophosaurus and its relatives were recorded in the Early Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

22 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 14 sites for Dilophosaurus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

5 references

Each of the 14 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Dilophosaurus

Credit
Eduard Solà
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itNeotheropoda through timeFormations of the Early JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Welles 1970