THE poison-spitting dinosaurs in the film Jurassic Park were pure
Hollywood invention, but some dinosaurs may really have had a venomous bite.
The revelation comes from a two-centimetre tooth found in Mexico that has a
longitudinal groove like those in the venom-channelling fangs of some snakes.
It’s the first evidence that any dinosaurs were venomous.
The curved, blade-like tooth came from a small theropod, a family of
two-legged predators that included Velociraptor, Tyrannosaurus
and Dilophosaurus, a real dinosaur given fictional poison-spitting
powers in Jurassic Park.
“The general features of this tooth could be found in most theropod taxa,”
says Francisco…
