Movies - Biological Issues in Jurassic Park

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	Movies - Biological Issues in Jurassic Park

Many issues have been brought up by scientists and enthusiasts claiming that the events in the film Jurassic Park could not have happened for many reasons. This article discusses these issues.

During the movie's production, the effects supervisors acknowledged that the Velociraptors featured in the movie were sized identically to the larger Deinonychus. However, during the filming of the movie, paleontologists came across a larger dromaeosaurid species named Utahraptor, and the larger raptors remained, even though Utahraptor was substantially larger (21 feet long) than the movie's raptors.

Michael Crichton's novel Raptors, following through to the film Raptors, were larger than the species going by the name because during the writing of the novel, a specimen as large as a man was found and named Velociraptor. He wrote his novel based on the idea of a human sized raptor, but after the publication--when the movie was already in production--the name of the specimen was changed from Velociraptor to Deinonychus.

The Procompsognathus
in the novel secrete a venom described as similar to that of a cobra, although more primitive. This ability to incapacitate their prey is absent in the films. At the moment, however, Procompsognathus is no longer a dinosaur, but a lizard (due to a recent find), but the animal classification has switched back and forth between being a lizard, a bird, and a dinosaur since its discovery.

The Dilophosaurus
in the movie is smaller than their 6 m (20ft) real-life counterparts, and has a totally speculative frill like the Australian frill-necked lizard. The frill was one of many ways the film showed that we can never know everything about the animals we resurrect because not eveything about them would be fossilized. The frill/venom is an ability that Michael Crichton decided to add and is purely creative license. The issue of their size may be explained by Nedry's comment about "big brothers" and this one not being "so bad" — perhaps it is a juvenile. Also, in "The Lost World", several dinosaur information props state that the "Dilophosaurus" is normally 20ft long, signifying the animal in JP was indeed, a juvenile.

The Brachiosaurus
in the movie was shown to be chewing its food, like a cow. In reality, it couldn't as its teeth were specialized in stripping leaf matter from the branches, to then be swallowed whole. In the stomach, there were "gastroliths", rocks swallowed to grind up the plant matter to enable the animal to digest the plants.

Though the movie's theory is that the Tyrannosaurus rex would be unable to "see" someone if they were to remain still, some argue that it would still be able to smell them. The book was ambiguous on the subject, though it hints that this is more the result of having the tyrannosaur's DNA blended with that of frogs. While the theory is put forth by Grant, Ed Regis is eaten by the juvenile tyrannosaurus after he thought it had walked past without seeing him. Most paleontologists consider Jurassic Park's use of the "amphibian visual cortex" here to be inaccurate, and that the dinosaur would be able to perceive static prey. This is acknowledged in the sequel novel The Lost World
: a character attempts to evade a tyrannosaurus by freezing. The man is promptly eaten alive and is criticized by paleontologist Richard Levine, commenting that an animal's first instinct is to freeze, and so a T. rex would have to be able to still see them, or else it would starve. Levine then says that the tyrannosaurus in the original work was simply full and did not consider the humans worth the bother.

Other issues

During the scene where Dennis Nedry is busy stealing the dinosaurs' DNA, some of the tubes on which the dinosaurs' names are printed have the names spelled incorrectly, including Tyrannosaurus
. It also shows Dennis Nedry opening up a liquid nitrogen-filled cryogenic container and handling the supercooled tubes filled with dinosaur DNA without thermal gloves. Doing this without gloves can be quite painful and causes severe frostbite. Nonetheless, it can be done for very brief periods, as shown. Also, the antennae of the fossil mosquito trapped in amber at the beginning of the film are fuzzy. This indicates that the insect is male; however, only the females are bloodsuckers.

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