Cryolophosaurus

Cryolophosaurus was the first carnivorous dinosaur discovered in Antarctica, excavated high on Mount Kirkpatrick in the Transantarctic Mountains. Living during the Early Jurassic, it inhabited cool-temperate polar forests far warmer than the frozen landscape seen today. Its most iconic attribute was a perpendicular, fan-shaped bony crest rising above the eyes, curling slightly forward. This fragile ornament was unsuited for combat and was almost certainly used for species recognition or mating displays. Measuring over six metres in length and weighing around half a tonne, Cryolophosaurus was the apex predator of its ecosystem, hunting primitive sauropodomorphs like Glacialisaurus. Its anatomy blends features of ceratosaurs and basal tetanurans, providing key clues about the evolutionary radiation of early large predatory dinosaurs.

It bore a distinctive forward-curling skull crest resembling an Elvis Presley pompadour.

Where and when

Cryolophosaurus lived in the Early Jurassic, from 194 to 188 million years ago (Sinemurian-Pliensbachian age). Its remains come from Antarctica, in the Hanson Formation.

The numbers

Length 6.3 m (estimates run from 6 to 6.5 m). Mass about 520 kg. Hip height about 1.7 m. That is 3.7 human-lengths, or 0.56 of a double-decker bus. These are estimates from partial skeleton; fields marked estimated by the site are length, mass, hip height.

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