WWD: Liliensternus liliensterni (Patreon)

This is part of a series I had the inspiration to start redoing the Walking with Dinosaurs series, but revamping the animals and settings to try and be as accurate as possible as we know from 20+ more years of scientific knowledge, while still keeping the types of animals similar. The series was notorious for putting animals in locations and time periods where/when they were not known in virtually every episode, so some species will be changed to a close approximate if necessary.

This is the main character of the first episode, set during the Late Triassic, the small predatory theropod Coelophysis... or well, a coelophysoid at least. I changed it to the larger German Liliensternus so it would actually live alongside the giant Plateosaurus species that featured in the episode instead of it being a geographical and chronological displacement. The WWD live arena show already replaced Coelophysis with Liliensternus so this wasn't that much of a change, although, estimated at over 300 pounds in weight, it's not quite as much a "small predator" as the 50 pound Coelophysis...

Liliensternus is often depicted with large paired crests like Dilophosaurus (including in its portrayal in the live arena show), but these are purely speculative. There's no actual evidence of them since no skull fossils are known for Liliensternus, so I omitted them and only gave it a very small skull ridge. Also, for the purpose of actually having the animals chosen live together, the time period is changed from 220 MYA to 210 MYA.