A hunting pack of Dilophosaurus wetherilli patrols the shoreline of the local watering hole in what would become the southwestern US, about 200 million years ago...
A test image showing my Dilophosaurus Poser model, as it renders in Bryce 5. Dilophosaurus was known from fossils dating back to 1942, but not formally described until 1954. The skeletons were incomplete and, based on our modern understanding, juveniles or subadults, based on their size. Neither skeleton had a skull, so they were believed to be a generic 'Megalosaur' (the genus used as a 'default' for large carnivorous dinosaurs) until more fossils were found in 1964, close to the site of the original find. This new, larger skeleton had a skull, and its unique features were immediately apparent! The discovery of three skeletons so close together supports the idea that these 7-meter (20-foot) terrors lived and hunted in packs. They may well have needed to cooperate to hunt the contemporary prosauropods, some of which were already well on their way to becoming the giants of 50 million years later. Of course, no Dilophosaurus could afford to pass up a snack, should one become available; so the local lizards probably tried to keep out of their way... not all were successful! Note also that, even though the dinosaurs were only just spreading into their various types and niches, the air was already full of flitting pterosaurs, which had evolved millions of years earlier.
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