I'm proud and excited to announce the launch of my new dinosaur, the Dilophosaurus ("Two-Crested Reptile").
If Dilophosaurus looks vaguely familiar, you may remember it from the first Jurassic Park movie, where it was featured as 'the Spitter.' Now, the beastie in Jurassic Park was decked out in neck frills like an Australian Frilled Lizard, but there is absolutely no scientific evidence for that. It was also, probably, a juvenile. Instead, the Dilophosaurus was considerably larger and more dangerous. Adults were about 6-7m in length, (about 20 feet), and a large part of that was a long tail. The animal was fairly slender compared to larger, later carnivores. Spielberg (or his 'technical' advisor Michael Crichton) probably came up with the idea that it was poisonous because there was some evidence that the jaws were fairly weak for a large predator, and not sturdy enough for a biting attack. A venom-spitting attack or a poisonous bite (courtesy of nasty mouth bacteria, like today's Komodo Dragons) might have been a reasonable alternative - Bite once (or spit) and then just wait for your victim to die. Nasty. However, the evidence for a weak jaw structure is now being called into question, so the point is moot. Another, more realistic version of the Dilophosaurus was featured in one of the segments of the Discovery Channel documentary, When Dinosaurs Roamed America. That was a pretty good CG recreation, if you've seen it. The Dilophosaurus has been picked up by DAZ, and it should be appearing in the 'Premiere' section of the DAZ store this week!
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