Dilophosaurus

Dino Index

Dilophosaurus

Dilophosaurus

6 – 7 mete

1.5 meters

450 kilogr

carnivore

Jurassic

Die – law – faw – soar – rus

What Did Dilophosaurus Eat?

Why Do We Ask?

I wanted to ask what Dilophosaurus ate simply because I like to know if it was a meat eater or plant eater. Dilophosaurus was a medium sized dinosaur in the Jurassic period that had some unusual features. In particular, it had strange crests on its head. But this is not talking about what it ate. Getting back to the business of food, why do we ask about what it ate? Simply because it had another strange feature: a weak jaw.

The Jaw

You canft really say the jaw was weak though. A better way to say it is that the jaw was connected weakly. ****Technically the pre-maxilla was loosely connected to the maxilla .****This means that the teeth could not have been used in an attack for stabbing. But this dinosaur did not need to worry about teeth, it was still a very capable hunter.

Why do we think it is a hunter?

Hunting was definitely high on Dilophosaurusfs list of ways of getting food even with the weak jaw. This is because of the arms this dinosaur was equipped with. They were powerful, with three fingers. But more importantly, one of the fingers was opposable.

Opposable Fingers

This opposable finger makes Dilophosaurus scary. Think about your own fingers and thumb. Your thumb is opposable. If it were not, then holding things would be much more difficult, and weak. Now we can see why Dilophosaurus was scary. It could hold you. Or whatever it wanted to eat.

Scary Monster

The picture that we have of Dilophosaurus now is really scary. Dilophosaurus could run. Fast. On itfs hind legs. And the front arms were free to grab with. And it was almost 2m tall, and 6m long, weighing perhaps around 500kg. And thick tough skin that would have been herd to hurt. Then there are the claws on the hind legs, too.

What are other possibilities?

Some scientists have suggested that even a dinosaur as big and scary as Tyrannosaurus rex might have been a scavenger. The possibility certainly holds out for Dilophosaurus, too, especially considering the weak jaw. In fact, the teeth were also possibly weak. They were quite long, but they do not look like they were strongly attached to the jaw since they have a weak base. On the other hand, it might have specialized in hunting small animals, too.

Other features

Did it hunt in packs?

Dilophosaurus was first found in Arizona. The first site it was found in had three Dilophosaurus skeletons. Solitary animals would be solitary. They would die alone. Being found together is reasonably strong evidence that they spent time together in a pack. Probably, then they also worked together in activities like hunting. But we cannot be certain.