FACT SHEET: dilophosaurus
NAME: DILOPHOSAURUS (die-LOH-foh-SAW-rus), meaning: "Double-Crested Lizard"
SIZE: 20 feet long, 5 feet tall at the hips, weighed 900 pounds
TYPE OF DIET: Carnivore (smaller dinosaurs, lizards, fish, also a scavenger)
WHEN: Early Jurassic period (201 - 189 million years ago)
WHERE: Arizona, North America. China.
Dilophosaurus appeared during the early Jurassic period, about 201 to 189 million years
ago. It was a speedy, slender, bipedal theropod dinosaur. This means it walked on two legs and
was a carnivore, a meat-eating dinosaur. It was a medium-sized predator, about 20 feet long and
about five feet tall at the hip. The name Dilophosaurus means “crested lizard”. It got its name from
the two paper-thin crests along the top of its snout. No one knows what they were used for. Some
paleontologists believe that they were used to tell males and females apart. They might have been
colorful and useful to impress a mate.
Dilophosaurus had hollow bones and a curved, S-shaped neck. It had short arms with
three-fingered hands. Even though it had long, sharp teeth, its jaws were somewhat weak. They
were probably not strong enough to kill its prey. But it had sharp claws on both its front and back
feet. Paleontologists believe that it used its claws – rather than its jaws - to attack. It might have
also been a scavenger. It usually ate smaller dinosaurs, lizards, or fish.
Dilophosaurus walked on two strong legs and was a pretty fast runner. It left small, bird-like
trackmarks - or footprints - on land. Some of its fossilized tracks are only of the tips of its claws.
That means that Dilophosaurus might have been walking in
water at the time. Dilophosaurus may have moved about and
hunted in packs or groups, since three skeletons were found
together. The first fossilized skeleton was found in Arizona,
North America. Skeletons have also been found in China.
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