page_title: Dilophosaurus
section_title: History of discovery
hierarchical_section_title: Dilophosaurus / History of discovery
caption_attribution_description: English: Dilophosaurus on display at the Royal Ontario Museum.
context_page_description: Dilophosaurus is a genus of theropod dinosaurs that lived in what is now North America during the Early Jurassic, about 193 million years ago. Three skeletons were discovered in northern Arizona in 1940, and the two best preserved were collected in 1942. The most complete specimen became the holotype of a new species in the genus Megalosaurus, named M. wetherilli by Samuel P. Welles in 1954. Welles found a larger skeleton belonging to the same species in 1964. Realizing it bore crests on its skull, he assigned the species to the new genus Dilophosaurus in 1970, as Dilophosaurus wetherilli. The genus name means "two-crested lizard", and the species name honors John Wetherill, a Navajo councilor. Further specimens have since been found, including an infant. Footprints have also been attributed to the animal, including resting traces. Another species, Dilophosaurus sinensis from China, was named in 1993, but was later found to belong to the genus Sinosaurus.
  At about 7 m in length, with a weight of about 400 kg, Dilophosaurus was one of the earliest large predatory dinosaurs and the largest known land-animal in North America at the time.
context_section_description: In the summer of 1942, the paleontologist Charles L. Camp led a field party from the University of California Museum of Paleontology (UCMP) in search of fossil vertebrates in Navajo County in northern Arizona. Word of this was spread among the Native Americans there, and the Navajo Jesse Williams brought three members of the expedition to some fossil bones he had discovered in 1940. The area was part of the Kayenta Formation, about 32 km (20 mi) north of Cameron near Tuba City in the Navajo Indian Reservation. Three dinosaur skeletons were found in purplish shale, arranged in a triangle, about 9.1 m (30 ft) long at one side. The first was nearly complete, lacking only the front of the skull, parts of the pelvis, and some vertebrae. The second was very eroded, included the front of the skull, lower jaws, some vertebrae, limb bones, and an articulated hand. The third was so eroded that it consisted only of vertebral fragments. The first good skeleton was encased in a block of plaster after 10 days of work and loaded onto a truck, the second skeleton was easily collected, as it was almost entirely weathered out of the ground, but the third skeleton was almost gone.
  The nearly complete first specimen was cleaned and mounted at the UCMP under supervision of the paleontologist Wann Langston Jr., a process that took three men two years. The skeleton was wall-mounted in bas relief, with the tail curved upwards, the neck straightened, and the left leg moved up for visibility, but the rest of the skeleton was kept in its burial position. As the skull was crushed, it was reconstructed based on the back of the skull of the first specimen and the front of the second. The pelvis was reconstructed after that of Allosaurus, and the feet were also reconstructed. At the time, it was one of the best-preserved skeletons of a theropod dinosaur, though incomplete. In 1954, the paleontologist Samuel P. Welles, who was part of the group who excavated the skeletons, preliminarily described and named this dinosaur as a new species in the existing genus Megalosaurus, M. wetherilli. The nearly complete specimen (catalogued as UCMP 37302) was made the holotype of the species, and the second specimen (UCMP 37303) was made the paratype. The specific name honored John Wetherill, a Navajo councilor whom Welles described as an "explorer, friend of scientists, and trusted trader". Wetherill's nephew, Milton, had first informed the expedition of the fossils. Welles placed the new species in Megalosaurus due to the similar limb proportions of it and M. bucklandii, and because he did not find great differences between them. At the time, Megalosaurus was used as a "wastebasket taxon", wherein many species of theropods were placed, regardless of their age or locality.
  Welles returned to Tuba City in 1964 to determine the age of the Kayenta Formation (it had been suggested to be Late Triassic in age, whereas Welles thought it was Early to Middle Jurassic), and discovered another skeleton about 400 m (¹⁄₄ mi) south of where the 1942 specimens had been found. The nearly complete specimen (catalogued as UCMP 77270) was collected with the help of William Breed of the Museum of Northern Arizona and others. During preparation of this specimen, it became clear that it was a larger individual of M. wetherilli, and that it would have had two crests on the top of its skull. Being a thin plate of bone, one crest was originally thought to be part of the missing left side of the skull, which had been pulled out of its position by a scavenger. When it became apparent that it was a crest, it was also realized that  a corresponding crest would have been on the left side, since the right crest was right of the midline, and was concave along its middle length. This discovery led to re-examination of the holotype specimen, which was found to have bases of two thin, upwards-extended bones, which were crushed together. These also represented crests, but they had formerly been assumed to be part of a misplaced cheek bone. The two 1942 specimens were also found to be juveniles, while
caption: Front part of holotype cast, ROM; the skull, crests, and pelvis are reconstructed, the neck straightened, the left leg moved up, and the tail has been curved upwards. The rest of the skeleton is in the position of burial.[2]
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