Kenyata Formation

The Kenyata formation is spread across the Colorado plateau. 186 million years ago towards the beginning of the Jurassic period. The planet had recovered from an extinction event which had ended the Triassic period. This mass extinction resulted in the elimination of many of the large terrestrial animals, the pseudosuchians, which had previously dominated the land while dinosaurs were still comparatively meek. The arena was now clear for dinosauria to diversify and claim many of the unoccupied ecological niches. One of the largest predators of its time, dilophosaurus wetherilli was one example of how dinosaurs would expand and specialize into new prominent roles in their environment. Depicted are a pair of dilophosaurus ambushing a foraging scutellosaurus while a rhamphinion (a North American relative of dimorphodon) flees.