Favorite Dinosaur?

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 04-01-03 AT 07:55 PM (GMT)]All this talk of cloning and DNA got me thinking about Jurassic Park and dinosaurs in general. I’ve always had an interest in this prehistoric creatures. I find them fascinating. My favorite one has to be Dilophosaurus. For those of you that don’t know what that is just think of the dinosaur that spit at the man in the movie Jurassic Park. Although in all actuality the real Dilophsaurus was quite different from its movie counterpart. The real Dilophsaurus wasn’t poisonous and didn’t spit venom as its prey. It also didn’t have the neck frills that you see in the movie. Also, the one in the movie was much too small. The real Dilohposaurus was around 20 feet long and stood around 10 feet high. It weighed roughly 1,000 pounds (half a ton/454-kg) or so. It’s distinguishing features included a pair of crests that ran along part of the top of the skull. When viewed from the front or rear these crests formed a type of V-shape. The mouth was lined with rows of razor sharp teeth and towards the front of the jaw there was a distinct kink, almost as if the jaw was designed to be used to catch small but quick prey. Each arm had a hand with three fingers each tipped with a sharp claw. There was a fourth digit on each hand but it was too small to be of any use. The feet were very similar, with three large claws on each foot and then two smaller digits with claws that most likely served no purpose. The body was long and slender, and the Dilophosaurus was likely quite fast. The animal lived around 200 million years ago during the early part of the Jurassic Period. The full name of the animal was Dilophosaurus witherilli. (The second name is part of the scientific name.) The word Dilohpsaurus stands for “Two-Ridged Lizard”. Here are some skeletons, paintings, and models of what Dilohposaurus probably looked like.

http://www.dinodata.net/Dd/IMAHTM/dilophosaurus.GIF

http://www.district96.w-cook.k12.il.us/central/projects/dinosaurus/imag…

http://www.studyworksonline.com/creating_dinos/images/dilopho.jpg

http://www.dc.peachnet.edu/~pgore/myphotos/fossils/dilophohead.gif

http://www.arches.uga.edu/~dnute/paleo/Dilophosaurus_RTMP.jpg

Anyone else have a favorite and why?