Thursday, March 24, 2011

Dilophosaurus





Here are some images of Lindberg's Dilophosaurus "Spitter" from the movie Jurassic Park.
From Wikipedia"

Dilophosaurus was a theropod dinosaur from the Sinemurian stage of the Early Jurassic Period, about 193 million years ago. The name (pronounced /daɪˌlɒfɵˈsɔrəs/ dy-LOF-o-SAWR-əs or /daɪˌloʊfɵˈsɔrəs/) means "two-crested lizard", from the two crests of the animal (Greek di for "two", lophos "crest", and sauros "lizard"). The first specimens were described in 1954, but it was not until over a decade later that the genus received its current name. Dilophosaurus is one of the earliest known Jurassic theropods and one of the least understood.

The most distinctive characteristic of Dilophosaurus is the pair of rounded crests on its skull, possibly used for display. Studies by Robert Gay show no indication that sexual dimorphism was present in the skeleton of Dilophosaurus, but says nothing about crest variation. The teeth of Dilophosaurus are long, but have a fairly small base and expand basally. Another skull feature was a notch behind the first row of teeth, giving Dilophosaurus an almost crocodile-like appearance, similar to the putatively piscivorous spinosaurid dinosaurs. This "notch" existed by virtue of a weak connection between the premaxillary and maxillary bones of the skull. This conformation led to the early hypothesis that Dilophosaurus scavenged off dead carcasses, with the front teeth being too weak to bring down and hold large prey.

Dilophosaurus was prominently featured both in the 1993 movie Jurassic Park and in the original novel by Michael Crichton. In the film version, Dilophosaurus has a retractable neck frill around its neck (much like a frill-necked lizard), and spits blinding poison, aiming for the eyes to blind and paralyze its prey (much like a spitting cobra). There is no evidence to support either the frill or the venom spitting, which was acknowledged by Crichton as creative license.[ In the film, Steven Spielberg also reduced the size of Dilophosaurus to 3 feet (0.91 m) tall and 5 feet (1.5 m) long in order to avoid confusion with the Velociraptors. Jurassic Park merchandise, including toys and video games (such as Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis and the arcade games The Lost World: Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park III), often include Dilophosaurus.

Despite its inaccuracies, the Jurassic Park Dilophosaurus has been taken up by others. Several other video games, such as ParaWorld, Jurassic: The Hunted, and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, feature Dilophosaurus modeled after the representations in Jurassic Park, and The Whitest Kids U'Know sketch "Dinosaur Rap", a music video for Trevor Moore's "Gettin' High With Dinosaurs" features a Dilophosaurus, complete with a short frill. A more accurately restored Dilophosaurus was featured in the documentary When Dinosaurs Roamed America, killing an Anchisaurus and scaring off a pack of Syntarsus (now known as Megapnosaurus).

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