It is a common dinosaur in museums. A number of museums cooperated in excavations at the Cleveland Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry. By 1976, museums in eight countries on three continents had Cleveland-Lloyd allosaur material or casts. "Allosaurus" is the official 'state fossil' of Utah.
"Allosaurus" is top predator in both Arthur Conan Doyle's 1912 novel, "The Lost World", and its 1925 film adaptation, the first full-length motion picture to feature dinosaurs.
"Allosaurus" was used as the starring dinosaur of the 1956 film "The Beast of Hollow Mountain", and the 1969 film "The Valley of Gwangi". Gwangi is billed as an "Allosaurus", though Ray Harryhausen based his model for the creature on Charles R. Knight's depiction of a "Tyrannosaurus". "Allosaurus" appeared in the second episode of the 1999 BBC television series "Walking with Dinosaurs" and the follow-up special "The Ballad of Big Al", which speculated on the life of the 'Big Al' specimen, as revealed by the numerous injuries and pathologies in its skeleton.
Ceratosaurus
Ceratosaurus was a predatory dinosaur from the Upper Jurassic period, 156 to 145 million years ago. It had a large horn on its nose, and a pair of smaller horns in front of its eyes. Uniquely among theropods, "Ceratosaurus" had armor, in the form of small osteoderms running down the middle of its back.
Carnotaurus
Carnotaurus was a predatory dinosaur that lived 70 million years ago. It was a large theropod which lived in South America during the Upper Cretaceous between about 72 and 70 million years ago. Although there is only one well-preserved skeleton, it is one of the best-understood theropods from the southern hemisphere. The skeleton, found in 1984, was uncovered in the Chubut Province of Argentina.
"Carnotaurus" is a member of the Abelisauridae, a group of large theropods. The abelisaurids were a family of large theropods which lived only in the ancient southern supercontinent Gondwana. They were the dominant predators of the later Cretaceous of Gondwana. They occupied the ecological niche filled by the tyrannosaurids in the northern continents.
"Carnotaurus" was a lightly built, bipedal predator, in length and at least in weight. As a theropod, "Carnotaurus" was highly specialized and distinctive. It had thick horns above the eyes, a feature not seen in other carnivorous dinosaurs, and a very deep skull sitting on a muscular neck. Also, it had small, vestigial forelimbs, smaller even than those of "Tyrannosaurus".
The remains include skin impressions showing a mosaic of small, non-overlapping scales about 5 mm in diameter. The mosaic was interrupted by large bumps that lined the sides of the animal, and there are no hints of feathers.
The distinctive horns and muscular neck may have been used in fighting rivals of its own species. Rivals may have fought with quick head blows, by slow pushes with the upper sides of their skulls, or by ramming each other head-on, using their horns as shock absorbers. The feeding habits of "Carnotaurus" remain unclear: some studies suggest the animal was able to hunt down very large prey such as sauropods, while other studies find it preyed mainly on relatively small animals. "Carnotaurus" was well adapted for running and was possibly one of the fastest large theropods.
The animal lived in an environment of estuaries, tidal flats or coastal plains. The climate would have been seasonal with both dry and humid periods. The most common vertebrates collected include lungfish, turtles, crocodiles, plesiosaurs, dinosaurs, lizards, snakes and mammals. Turtles are represented by at least five taxa. In 2011, the discovery of a new enantiornithine bird from the La Colonia Formation was announced.
It appears in the movie "Dinosaur" (2000), when two "Carnotaurus" were fighting with "Iguanodon", "Pachyrhinosaurus" and other species. And in Jurassic World 2: Fallen Kingdom (2018), when fighting a Sinoceratops and gets taken down by the iconic "Rexy" the T-Rex. Later on in the movie, when it escapes the "Lockwood Manor" and in Michael Crichton’s book "The Lost World" (1995)
Coelophysis
Coelophysis was a small fast running carnivorous dinosaur. It is one of the earliest known genera of dinosaur. "Coelophysis" was found in Upper Triassic strata dated to about 200 million years ago (mya). It lived in what is now the southwestern United States. Similar dinosaurs are found all over the world at that time.
"Coelophysis" walked on two legs (as did all theropods). It was no more than about three feet (1 meter) tall at the hips but because of a long tail could be almost 10 feet (3 meters) long. There is some evidence that these animals hunted in packs, from the large numbers found together at the Ghost Ranch fossil site in New Mexico.
Two different sizes of this species have been found in the fossil record. At first paleontologists thought that they were two different species, but most now think that this is because "Coelophysis" males were larger than the females. This trait, known as sexual dimorphism, is often seen today in many animal species.
"Coelophysis" had a long narrow head (approximately ), with large, forward-facing eyes that afforded it stereoscopic vision and as a result excellent depth perception. The eyes were supported by bony rings ("sclerotic" rings). The complete sclerotic ring of a juvenile "Coelophysis bauri" was compared to those of reptiles and birds. Evidently "Coelophysis" was a daytime predator which hunted by sight. The study found that its vision was superior to that of most lizards, and ranked with that of modern birds of prey.
For a while, it was thought that "Coelophysis" were cannibalistic, because what looked like "Coelophysis" babies were seen in the stomach of an adult "Coelophysis". However, these specimens were misinterpreted. Several specimens of "juvenile coelophysids" were actually small crurotarsan reptiles such as "Hesperosuchus". In some cases bigger individuals were crushed on top of smaller ones. There is no longer any evidence to support cannibalistic behavior in "Coelophysis".
Edward Drinker Cope first named "Coelophysis" in 1889. This was during the "Bone Wars" with Othniel Charles Marsh. An amateur fossil collector, David Baldwin, found the first remains of the dinosaur in 1881. The type species, "C. bauri" was named after him. These first finds were too poorly preserved to give a complete picture of the new dinosaur.
In 1947, a substantial 'graveyard' of "Coelophysis" fossils was found in New Mexico, at Ghost Ranch, close to the original find. So many fossils together were probably the result of a flash flood, which swept away a large number of "Coelophysis" and buried them quickly and simultaneously. It seems such flooding was commonplace at the time. The Petrified Forest of nearby Arizona was caused by a log jam of tree trunks caught in a flood.
The Ghost Ranch specimens were numerous, with many well-preserved specimens. Since the Ghost Ranch specimens were discovered, more skeletons have been found in Arizona, New Mexico and an as-yet unconfirmed specimen from Utah, including both adults and juveniles. The deposits where "Coelophysis" was discovered date from the late Triassic, bur similar specimens have been found in the Lower Jurassic elsewhere in the world.
"Coelophysis" is the state fossil of New Mexico.
Dilophosaurus
Dilophosaurus (meaning 'double-crested lizard') was a medium-large dinosaur from 190 million years ago.
"Dilophosaurus" has been examined several times over the years and has been put into no less than nine different theropod groups. It may be related to the smaller "Coelophysis". Specific details of its life-style are few. Some of its fossils were found in terrain which was a low-lying slow-moving river system at the time. The animal was obviously a carnivore.
"Dilophosaurus" was shown in the movie "When Dinosaurs Roamed America" scaring off a pack of "Megapnosaurus" and eating an "Anchisaurus".
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