WEBVTT - Could Dilophosaurus Really Spit Poison?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey brain Stuff

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<v Speaker 1>Lauren Vogelbaum here. Many of us first learned about the

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<v Speaker 1>Dilophosaurus through the Jurassic Park franchise. It certainly made them memorable.

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<v Speaker 1>In the novel by Michael Crichton from nineteen ninety these

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<v Speaker 1>dinosaurs spit a sort of gooey poison in the face

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<v Speaker 1>of prey to disable them, and the nineteen ninety three

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<v Speaker 1>film added bright red and yellow roughs or frills that

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<v Speaker 1>pop up from the creature's neck to surround its head.

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<v Speaker 1>The overall effect is scary and beautiful and unfortunately, or

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<v Speaker 1>perhaps fortunately, a completely made up As far as we know.

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<v Speaker 1>Dilophosaurus was, however, one of the few dinosaurs in Jurassic

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<v Speaker 1>Park that lived in the actual Jurassic Period. All of

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<v Speaker 1>the non avian dinosaurs were confined to the geologic era

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<v Speaker 1>called the Mesozoic. Divide the Mesozoic into three periods, the Triassic,

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<v Speaker 1>the Jurassic, and the Cretaceous, based on major changes that

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<v Speaker 1>informed the landscape and climate and life on Earth. The

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<v Speaker 1>Mesozoic era went out with a bang. A mass extinction

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<v Speaker 1>marked the end of the Cretaceous period. Sixty six million

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<v Speaker 1>years ago. Birds were the only dinosaurs that survived the catastrophe.

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<v Speaker 1>Their brethren had a good run, though. The earliest dinosaurs

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<v Speaker 1>evolved around two hundred and forty three to two hundred

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<v Speaker 1>and thirty one million years ago during the Triassic Period,

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<v Speaker 1>a time of great reptilian diversity. The Triassic gave way

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<v Speaker 1>to the Jurassic about one hundred and ninety nine million

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<v Speaker 1>years before the present. Prior to that transition, most carnivorous

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<v Speaker 1>dinosaurs were small bodied. Dilophosaurus was a sign of bigger

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<v Speaker 1>things to come. The beast roamed what was now southwestern

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<v Speaker 1>North America in the early Jurassic period about one hundred

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<v Speaker 1>and eighty three to one hundre undred and ninety three

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<v Speaker 1>million years ago. Dilophosaurus measured over twenty feet long or

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<v Speaker 1>six meters, making it deep biggest known North American land

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<v Speaker 1>animal alive at that time. Compared to many of the

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<v Speaker 1>flesh eating dinosaurs that had existed beforehand, this thing was

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<v Speaker 1>a giant that first Jurassic Park film portrayed Dilophosaurus as

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<v Speaker 1>being smaller small enough to ride shotgun in a jeep.

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<v Speaker 1>As a matter of storytelling practicality, they wanted to distinguish

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<v Speaker 1>it from their larger velociraptors, especially because they were the

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<v Speaker 1>main dino antagonists that poisoned. Spit becomes a flashy, if

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<v Speaker 1>gory plot point in the novel and the film when

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<v Speaker 1>one of the human antagonists meets his just desserts. The

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<v Speaker 1>book explains scientists thought Dilophosaurus's jaw muscles were too weak

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<v Speaker 1>to kill prey and imagined they were primarily scavengers, but

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<v Speaker 1>now we know they are poisonous. There's no evidence to

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<v Speaker 1>suggest that the real Dilophosaurus had a movable neck frill

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<v Speaker 1>or carried poison or venom. Generally speaking, the difference between

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<v Speaker 1>poison and venom is that venom is injected into a

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<v Speaker 1>victim's flesh through a stinger, spines, teeth, or claws, whereas

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<v Speaker 1>poison is applied more indirectly and absorbed through the victim's skin, airways,

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<v Speaker 1>or digestive system. These evolved delivery methods have to do

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<v Speaker 1>with the chemical composition of an animal's toxins. Poisons are

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<v Speaker 1>made up of tiny molecules that can see right past

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<v Speaker 1>the tight barrier of the skin into the victim's body.

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<v Speaker 1>Venoms are made of larger molecules. That are too big

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<v Speaker 1>to do that, so they have to be introduced via

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<v Speaker 1>a wound. All of this would give you the idea

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<v Speaker 1>that a fictional Dilophosaurus spitting would be poisonous, except that

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<v Speaker 1>it mimics the real life modern spitting cobras, which are

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<v Speaker 1>venomous snakes that have adapted the ability to spit their

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<v Speaker 1>venom into a victim's face, where the mucous membranes of

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<v Speaker 1>the eyes, nose, and mouth allow the venom to penetrate

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<v Speaker 1>into the body. All of that being said, a toxin

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<v Speaker 1>spitting Dilophosaurus is fictional, so the technicality of venomous versus

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<v Speaker 1>poisonous doesn't really matter. However, just because this adaptation is fictional,

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<v Speaker 1>it doesn't mean that Michael Crichton pulled the scavenger hypothesis

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<v Speaker 1>out of thin air. The paleontologist who named Dilophosaurus in

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<v Speaker 1>nineteen seventy won, Samuel P. Wells, thought the creature might

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<v Speaker 1>have been mostly a carrion eater. Below the dinosaur's nasal openings,

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<v Speaker 1>there's a distinctive notch on either side of its upper jaw.

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<v Speaker 1>These notches lay at the meeting point of the toothy

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<v Speaker 1>upper and lower jaws, and Wells thought the notches implied

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<v Speaker 1>that these bones were only weakly connected, and therefore the

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<v Speaker 1>Dilophosaurus didn't have a very strong bite. By the time

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<v Speaker 1>Crichton's book came out, there had been a lot a

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<v Speaker 1>lot of debate about this dinosaur's eating habits. The carrion

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<v Speaker 1>concept was one hypothesis. Another imagined Dilophosaurus as a fishing

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<v Speaker 1>specialist that used its long teeth and jaws to snatch

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<v Speaker 1>up wriggling fish. But since then, new research has cast

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<v Speaker 1>the animal in a different light. In twenty twenty, the

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<v Speaker 1>Journal of Paleontology published a study that reevaluated five specimens

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<v Speaker 1>of Dilophosaurus. The authors found that the connection between the

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<v Speaker 1>upper and lower jaws was stronger than Welles had supposed,

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<v Speaker 1>with scaffold like attachment points for stronger muscles on the

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<v Speaker 1>lower jawbones. This suggests that Dilophosaurus actually had powerful jaws

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<v Speaker 1>at its disposal, and bite marks found on a large

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<v Speaker 1>contemporary herbivore seemed to match Dilophosaurus. The researchers also called

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<v Speaker 1>more attention to the dinosaur's trademark feature, its flashy headcrests,

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<v Speaker 1>less flashy than a pop up neck work, but the

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<v Speaker 1>name Dilophosaurus means two crested lizard. The creature had a

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<v Speaker 1>pair of bony ornaments running up along its skull like

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<v Speaker 1>a double mohawk. It's unclear what the top of each

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<v Speaker 1>crest looked like. Scientists don't have any complete specimens to

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<v Speaker 1>go on, but the researchers wrote that the crests were

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<v Speaker 1>quote almost certainly covered in keratin or carotenized skin, Keratin

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<v Speaker 1>being the fibrous protein that makes so many animal body

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<v Speaker 1>structures so tough, like hair, hoofs, horns, fingernails, claws, beaks,

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<v Speaker 1>and feathers. Some modern birds, like the dangerous casswary, have

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<v Speaker 1>bony headcrests sheathed in a layer of keratin based material.

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<v Speaker 1>These coverings can make the crest as a whole significantly

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<v Speaker 1>taller than the underlying bone. So who knows. Dilophosaurus could

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<v Speaker 1>have looked even more flamboyant than its naked skeleton might suggest.

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<v Speaker 1>But if if you're wondering what the animal's twin crests

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<v Speaker 1>were for, join the club. Attracting mates is one popular explanation,

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<v Speaker 1>though it's also possible the crests helped regulate body Temperaturesaurus

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<v Speaker 1>knowledge comes from discoveries made on Navajo Nation land. In

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<v Speaker 1>nineteen forty, a Navajo man by the name of Jesse

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<v Speaker 1>Williams became the first person in recorded history to lay

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<v Speaker 1>eyes on a Dilophosaurus skeleton. Two years later, a group

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<v Speaker 1>of visiting scientists contacted Williams. He took them to a

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<v Speaker 1>Jurassic graveyard where three Dilophosaurus lay exposed. Wells, who would

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<v Speaker 1>name the animal and inspire criton's spitters, was one of

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<v Speaker 1>those scientists. Today, multiple specimens of this dinosaur, which legally

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<v Speaker 1>belonged to the Navajo Nation, are held in trust at

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<v Speaker 1>the University of California Museum of Paleontology. But you can

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<v Speaker 1>see the footprints of large predatory dinosaurs at early Jurassic

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<v Speaker 1>dig sites all over the world, but from the Rocky

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<v Speaker 1>Mountains to New England to eastern Europe. Some may have

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<v Speaker 1>been left behind by Dilophosaurus. Connecticut chose this dinosaur as

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<v Speaker 1>its official state dinosaur in twenty seventeen after trackways made

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<v Speaker 1>by an unidentified meat eating dinosaur from the early Jurassic

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<v Speaker 1>were found there. It's certainly possible that Dilophosaurus or a

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<v Speaker 1>close relative was the predator in question. Samuel P. Wells

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<v Speaker 1>had a long and fruitful career before his death in

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<v Speaker 1>nineteen ninety seven. After Jurassic Park hit theaters in ninety three,

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<v Speaker 1>he didn't shy away from pointing out the Dilophosaurus related embellishments.

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<v Speaker 1>Even so, Wells went on the record as saying I

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<v Speaker 1>enjoyed the movie thoroughly and was very happy to find

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<v Speaker 1>Dilophosaurus an internationally known actor. Today's episode is based on

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<v Speaker 1>the article the real Dilophosaurus makes the Jurassic Park for

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<v Speaker 1>and look tame on HowStuffWorks dot Com, written by Mark Mancini.

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<v Speaker 1>Brain Stuff is production of iHeartRadio in partnership with HowStuffWorks

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<v Speaker 1>dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang. But four

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