The Unencumbered Dilophosaurus

There are few dinosaurs as ill-served by their pop culture avatars as Dilophosaurus. Yes, Velociraptor still takes the crown for most persistently (and stubbornly) misunderstood, and perennial favorites such as Tyrannosaurus and Apatosaurus have had it rough as well.  But such dinosaurian celebrities have public images that are either in the process of shifting to something more accurate, or have already done so. The T.rex in Jurassic Park may have had its anatomical issues, but it was still recognizably a tyrannosaur.

Dilophosaurus has had no such luck. There are some genera that seem destined to always languish halfway in obscurity, and for a long time it seemed like Dilophosaurus would be one of them. Seldom given pride of place in vintage dinosaur art, often relegated to a simple head portrait in a collection of other theropods, Dilophosaurus managed to escape the sheer volume of trash reconstructions other animals accumulated simply by not being notable enough for most artists to butcher. Most reconstructions slapped the distinctive crests on a generic predatory dinosaur and called it a day.

That changed a bit with Jurassic Park. The anatomical inaccuracies of the Dilophosaurus presented in that film have been pretty well picked over, so it's not really worth belaboring them here. Yes, the choice to add a frill is a strange one, though it was probably inspired by the need to differentiate it from the raptors. The utter lack of a notched upper jaw is odder. Dilophosaurus had a fairly distinctively shaped head, and the film's designers instead bestowed it with a blunter, more bulldog shaped visage for reasons known only to themselves. But at least the genus was getting some kind of recognition.

Crash McCreery's Jurassic Park studies of Dilophosaurus, from the Stan Winston Studio

The problem, of course, is that much of that recognition is contingent on features the real animal probably didn't have. The crested theropod seems to have established a vague place in the popular consciousness as the "frilled one" or "the poison one." Post-Jurassic Park art of the genus continues to depict a generic theropod, only now with a frill slapped on in addition to the crests. Bulky bodies, amorphous heads, oversized feet. The Dilophosaurus of the zeitgeist is a frill and crests with claws attached.

Concept art of a crested...thing from Turok

That vagueness wasn't helped by the fact that Dilophosaurus never really got another chance at the limelight. It has yet to appear in another film besides Jurassic Park, and in a franchise that built such spectacular set pieces out of T.rex and Velociraptor, it was badly overshadowed. And when an animal as interesting and distinctive as Dilophosaurus has fewer screen appearances then Procompsognathus, of all things, then something has gone very wrong.

The truth is, even a quick glance at the skeleton of Dilophosaurus reveals a rather elegant and slender animal. Far from the muscular and boxy beasts of pop culture, Dilophosaurus is a sporty looking predator, long-tailed, long-legged and long-jawed, built with economy and class. Streamlined. No frills, you might say. The design work on Jurassic Park is like adding giant fins and spinning rims to a Ferrari; it punches up an animal that frankly doesn't need it.

A Polish sculpture of Dilophosaurus

Moreover, Dilophosaurus is an opportunity for mass media to present a kind of dinosaur they've traditionally had trouble portraying. Most theropods that make their way onto television and film are sold as either giant super-predators or viciously personal threats. Dilophosaurus, at about twenty feet long, is something different. A mid-range predator, large enough to be impressive, small enough that it seems to belong within a natural environment. To look at a Tyrannosaurus is to see a monster. To look at a Dilophosaurus is to see an animal.

The recent Sideshow model sculpted by Jorge Blanco is a top notch rendition.

To me, the very things that make the unencumbered Dilophosaurus a tough sell are the things that make it interesting. Popular renditions of dinosaurs are still struggling to free themselves from the monstrous idioms of the past: it's still hard to present dinosaurs as animals and not dragons. But if artists and producers can trust to the essential aesthetics of the real creature, they might be surprised at how rewarding the results can be.