Halticosaurus

Halticosaurus name means dexterous lizard. This dinosaur included the discoveries of a Jawbone, teeth, partial vertibrae, and leg fossils as well. These were found together with another dinosaur(Sellosaurus) in Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany. The Halticosaurus is under the Suborder theropod.

An two editional sets of fossils were discovered and classified as the carnivorous Halticosaurus, but one was later to be found as a crocodylomorph, the other labeled a Lilensternus.

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Dilophosaurus

You might have seen Dilophosaurus in the first Jurassic Park Motion Picture. In the movie it shows Dilophosaurus spitting an acid venomous tar like substance and showing a neck frill. There is absolutely no evidence that Dilophosaurus could do this and no fossil records of a neck frill. There were no poison glands intact and space for poison glades anywhere in fossil discoveries as well. In the film they claimed that they were only 3 feet tall and 5 feet in length, but they were much bigger. From the many findings of complete fossils the Dilophosaurus was much bigger. It was 21 feet long and up to 7 feet in height. Typically the weight of an animal of these dimensions was about 1/2 ton (1000lbs). This species was first discovered in 1942 by a man by the name of Sam Welles and all finding have been in Arizona . It was described in 1954, but had not been given its name until 10 years later. The name Dilophosaurus actually means "two-crested-lizard". It was from the ceratosaur group, but through recent studies it has crossed the line between being in the groups of both ceratosaurian and tetanuran theropods. In future discoveries it's sure that scientists will be watching for which group the Dilophosaurus should actually be in.

The Dilophosaurus was an aggressive carnivore and was one of the biggest for the region it was found (Tuba city, Arizona , USA ). It is determined that Dilophosaurus probably hunted and lived in herds because there were discoveries with up to three complete skeletons found together. This dinosaur had many interesting features such as short hind legs, four toed feet, short forelimbs, three fingered hands, and an opposable thumb for each hand. The claws of the Dilophosaurus were very thick for the size of the prehistoric predator. They were probably its main offense along with its size. The strong hind legs showed that it could probably run like a horse. Out in the open its estimated top speed was 26(mph). As for its mouth, it had a loose weak jaw so this probably was not the animals' main offensive weapon for hunting.

One of the most unique features of the Dilophosaurus was the two large crests upon its head. The rounded pair of semicircular bony crests were on its head faced vertically and the structure of them was fragile in certain area's. In these area's they were reinforced with struts on strong bone. There has not been confirmed evidence for these crests, but other various species of dinosaur did have them also. Crests were also found on fossils of the Parasaurolophus and Corythosaurus, however these were herbivores and the crests were very different. The Dilophosaurus crest was solid unlike the other dinosaurs with crests, which were hollow and had chambers connected for vocal reasons. It's noted that the Dilophosaurus crest was probably for a list of possibilities. It could be true that the crest was for breeding purposes. It's very common of animals today that have strange features to attract of opposite sex such at changing color, etc. Also another common thought is that these crested could've been for temperature controlling. It is unsure if dinosaurs were warm or cold blooded, but if Dilophosaurus was cold blooded then these crests would've been a perfect function for cooling its body temperature. This is a highly believed by most scientists because the region of Arizona in the Jurassic Era was defiantly a desert region being very hot with minimal water around.

Just for fun we have a soundclip available for you to hear what a Dilophosaurus could've sounded like. Click to the Dinosaur Sounds area to hear it. Please note that the dinosaur sounds are only for entertainment and are not an actual fact

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Massospondylus

Massospondylus were one of the strangest dinosaur. They were herbivores. The word Massospondylus is pronounced like mas-o-spon-di-lus. Massospondylus was known to be lived in North America and Southern Africa during the late Triassic period to the Early Jurassic period which is about 200 million years ago. It is said to be a strange dinosaur because of the shape of its limbs and the body.

Appearance of Massospondylus:

Massospondylus had a small head on the end of a long and flexible neck. It has two hands and two legs. Each of its hands had thumbs outfitted with a large claw and four other fingers. The arms of this dinosaur were known to be used both for grasping and for walking. The length of Massospondylus was about four meters (i.e.) thirteen feet long and its height was about 1.8 meters (i.e.) six feet tall at the hips. An adult Massospondylus would weigh around 1.5 tons.

The long neck of Massospondylus would have helped it to reach the top branches of the trees easily like a giraffe. The leg of this dinosaur is slightly longer than its arms. The dinosaur also had a long tail. Massospondylus were known to be the fast runners as compared to other dinosaurs and this dinosaur is known to be had a lower intelligence as compared to the other species of dinosaurs. The intelligence was measured by the relative brain to body weight, which is also called as EQ.

The first remains of the animal were known to be found in the 19 th century and it got the name Massospondylus from Sir Richard Owen, who gave this name, in the year 1854. The word Massospondylus means massive vertebra and it indicated the skeleton of the animals' neck.

As said previous, Massospondylus is a plant eating dinosaur and it like other birds; it is also believed to have consumed stones called as gizzard stones for the purpose of digestion of the tough plants ate by them. Massospondylus might have had the capacity to regurgitate the stone once the stone becomes smooth and soft from its stomach after which it might have consumed new stones as and when required. This was found with the help of piles of polished stones found in the skeletons of this animal.

The fossilized skeletons of Massospondylus were found in South Africa and apart from the skeletons, the fossilized eggs of this animal were also found in 1970s. From the eggs and the bones, it was found that the young Massospondylus would have been born without teeth and the young ones would have been helped by adult Massospondylus for eating purpose since it was toothless.

Massospondylus was a found to be closely related to the lizard family and was a member of the saurischia family of dinosaurs. According to the scientific classification Massospondylus belonged to Animalia kingdom, chordata phylum, sauropsida class and dinosaurian superorder. It is also known to belong to the order Saurischia and suborder Sauropodomorpha. Its infraorder is Prosauropoda and it belonged to the Plateosauridae family.

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Juravenator-Dinosaur

Juravenator is a type of small ceelurosaurian dinosaur, which was known to have lived in the Jura Mountains of Germany about 150 million years ago. The term Juravenator was derived from the Greek and the meaning of term is Jura Mountains hunter. The term is pronounced as Joor-ah-ven-ate-or. It is known to have belonged to the Jurassic Era. Juravenator is known to have been two feet (i.e.) 70 cm long. It would have weighed around 300 grams. It was found that the food habit of Juravenator would have included insects and fish. Juravenator was regarded as the member of Compsognathidae family, which makes it a close relative of sinocalliopteryx and sinosauropteryx. The fossil evidence of Juravenator showed that it would have had a downy, feather like covering. But, some parts of fossilized Juravenators' skin demonstrate that it would have been a normal dinosaur without any feathers.

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