Description
Though my Dilo doesn't have the Jurassic Park frill, I still made it fantasy-style with scales and pronated wrists This is the first in my new series studying prehistoric creatures. As I usually do a lot of heavily-saturated art of fantasy creatures like Pokémon, I am practicing with using more neutral tones and de-saturated colors (not to a completely dull extent, though)!
Dilophosaurus
Meaning: di-lophos-sauros “two-crested lizard”
Family: Dilophosauridae
Suborder: Theropoda
Order: Saurischia
Time Period: Sinemurian (Early Jurassic) -- about 190-199 million years ago
Location: Present-day Arizona & Sweden. Possibly also Connecticut and Massachusetts.
Length: 7 meters / 23 ft. long
Weight: 400 kilograms / 880 lbs.
Diet: Carnivore
Dilophosaurus was a large, bipedal carnivore with a distinctive pair of crests atop its head. Because of how fragile the crests are, they are thought to have been used only for display purposes, not combat. The crests may have been used for attracting mates, intimidating rivals, and even for helping individuals to identify each other.
As with most carnivorous theropods, Dilos were fast runners. They may have traveled together in small groups. Animals with prominent display features, such as crests, tend to be more social.
The strange shape of Dilophosaurus’ upper jaw suggests that it may have been a fish-eater, due to similarities with spinosaurids and crocodiles. It may also have been a carrion-eater. Overall, the shape of its skull suggests that it was probably too weak to take down any large prey.
Fiction: There is no evidence that Dilophosaurus could actually have a frill or spit venom. This was made up by Michael Crichton in the Jurassic Park novel, and popularized by Steven Spielberg's movie adaptation.
The fictitious frill design was based on the modern-day frilled lizard, which is a reptile, and dinosaurs are now known to be more closely related to birds. However, some birds (like peacocks or birds of paradise) do frill out their feathers in dazzling displays. It is probably more reasonable to think that Dilophosaurus could have had a frill made of feathers rather than scales.
Many modern dinosaur games, including Primal Carnage, The Isle, and Orion Dino Horde, feature a more realistic Dilo with no frill! However, the Dilo species in ARK: Survival Evolved does have a frill and spits a blinding venom, and the Primal Carnage Dilo has no frill but it does spit venom.
Dilophosaurus was also much smaller in the Jurassic Park film (about half its actual size).
stephaniekit.com