| Dilophosaurids Temporal range: Late Triassic-Middle Jurassic |
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| Replica Dilophosaurus wetherilli skull and neck, Royal Tyrrell Museum | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Superorder: | Dinosauria |
| Order: | Saurischia |
| Suborder: | Theropoda |
| Node: | Neotheropoda |
| Family: | †Dilophosauridae Madsen and Welles, 2000 |
| Genera | |
Dilophosauridae is a family of early carnivorous dinosaurs. They are well-known for their distinctive head crests, which were probably used for mating displays, or to intimidate rivals. The family was proposed by Alan Charig and Andrew Milner in 1990 to contain only the type genus, Dilophosaurus.[1] Other genera, such as Zupaysaurus and Dracovenator, have since been assigned to this family, though the group has never been given a phylogenetic definition and is not currently a clade. Some studies have suggested that there was a natural group of medium-sized crested theropods which included Dilophosaurus as well as Dracovenator, Cryolophosaurus, and "Dilophosaurus" sinensis, though it has not been formally named Dilophosauridae.[2] While traditionally assigned to the superfamily Coelophysoidea, these analyses suggest that dilophosaurids may have been more closely related to the group Tetanurae, comprising the more advanced megalosaurs, carnosaurs and coelurosaurs.
The following cladogram outlines the relationships of Dilophosaurus and its close relatives as recovered by the 2007 analysis of Smith, Makovicky, Pol, Hammer, and Currie.[2]
| Theropoda |
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