Genus
Valid Extinct

Dilophosaurus

Welles 1970
Etymology Reptile à deux crêtes

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.

Temporal range
Triassic
Jurassic
Cretaceous
Paleogene
Neogene
252 201 145 66 0 Ma
PBDB occurrences
14
Group
Dinosaures
Carnivore Ground dwelling, solitary Terrestrial
Dilophosaurus
click to enlarge
Dilophosaurus on display at the Royal Ontario Museum. © Eduard Solà · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia
Dilophosaurus
Dilophosaurus
PBDB Wikipedia
Classification
Dinosauria Unranked clade
Theropoda Unranked clade
Neotheropoda Unranked clade
Dilophosaurus Genus
Measurements
Length
6,3 m
Dilophosaurus wetherilli
7 m
Mass
350 kg
Dilophosaurus wetherilli
400 kg
Fossil sites 14 geolocated sites
Distribution
Top countries
🇺🇸 United States
13
🇮🇳 India
1
Geological formations
Kayenta
13
Dharmaram
1
Temporal distribution
Pliensbachian (192.9–184.2 Ma)
10
Sinemurian (199.5–192.9 Ma)
4
Species (1)
Dilophosaurus wetherilli 201 Ma
Images 11
Bibliography
Original description
S. P. Welles. 1970. Dilophosaurus (Reptilia: Saurischia), a new name for a dinosaur. Journal of Paleontology 44:989
Bibliography (5)
M. T. Carrano. 2021. Fossil Vertebrate Collections, Texas Memorial Museum / Texas Science & Natural History Museum
A. D. Marsh and T. B. Rowe. 2020. A comprehensive anatomical and phylogenetic evaluation of Dilophosaurus wetherilli (Dinosauria, Theropoda) with descriptions of new specimens from the Kayenta Formation of northern Arizona. Journal of Paleontology 94(Memoir 78):1-103 DOI ↗
T. S. Kutty, S. Chatterjee, and P. M. Galton, P. Upchurch. 2007. Basal sauropodomorphs (Dinosauria, Saurischia) from the Lower Jurassic of India: their anatomy and relationships. Journal of Paleontology 81(6):1552-1574 DOI ↗
J. M. Clark and D. E. Fastovsky. 1986. Vertebrate biostratigraphy of the Glen Canyon Group in northern Arizona. The Beginning of the Age of the Dinosaurs: Faunal change across the Triassic-Jurassic boundary, N. C. Fraser and H.-D. Sues (eds.), Cambridge University Press
S. P. Welles. 1954. New Jurassic dinosaur from the Kayenta Formation of Arizona. Bulletin of the Geological Society of America 65:591-598 DOI ↗