In Jurassic Park, what type of dinosaur is the one that spits poison?

In Jurassic Park, the dinosaur that spits poison is the Dilophosaurus. The scene shows a small, brightly colored animal ambushing Dennis Nedry, then projecting venom into his face before killing him. The movie also gives it a retractable neck frill, making the creature one of the film’s most memorable dinosaurs.

Those features are fictional additions. Real Dilophosaurus was an Early Jurassic theropod from what is now North America, living about 186 million years ago. Fossils indicate a substantially larger predator than the four-foot-tall movie depiction, and there is no established evidence that it possessed a frill or could spit venom. The film deliberately made it smaller so audiences would not confuse it with the Velociraptors.

The venom-spitting idea originated in Michael Crichton’s 1990 novel and was carried into Steven Spielberg’s 1993 adaptation. The film creature was built primarily with animatronics rather than computer imagery. Its venom effect used a practical mixture, while puppeteers operated interchangeable heads for the frill and attack sequences.