Dinosaurs: Jurassic Park vs. Reality

Our image of dinosaurs was significantly shaped by the portrayal of prehistoric lizards in the "Jurassic Park" films. And not without good reason: some of the world's leading paleontologists were hired as consultants for the films. For example, Jack Horner, who was the first to succeed in proving family ties among dinosaurs.

But for all the attention to detail, the "Jurassic Park" series is still blockbusters, not scientific treatises. And so some inaccuracies crept in to make the film more exciting or to be able to explain connections plausibly.

The first time we are already fibbed at during the DNA extraction: In fact, it is almost impossible to extract the genome of a dinosaur from the blood of a mosquito. For one thing, finding a mosquito from that time in amber is almost miraculous, and for another, DNA is incredibly fragile and decomposes very quickly. Its half-life is about 500 years. If you now consider that dinosaurs have been extinct for 65 million years, it becomes clear: There is not much left. Nevertheless, some finds of dinosaur DNA have already been made. But it will take some time until we can do something with it. Let's use the meantime and take a look at the differences between the dinosaurs in the movie and in reality!

Dilophosaurus

In "" , Dilophosaurus menacingly poses its collar and blinds its victims with poison. At first Dennis Nedry called him quite cute, but seconds later he became his undoing. In fact, the Dilophosaurus was probably an even more dangerous and, above all, much larger predator than depicted in the film. Fossils show that the dinosaur had been about seven meters long, making it one of the largest land predators to inhabit the earth 193 million years ago. In their defense, the filmmakers argued that it was not clear whether the animal shown was fully grown or was just a juvenile after all. However, the spitting of venom and the ruff, inspired by today's collared lizards, were fictitious. The presentation did not harm the dinosaur: the modifications were very well received by the audience.

Brachiosaurus

In the case of Brachiosaurus, the creative minds stuck closely to the original. The appearance and the way of life of the giant sauropods were presented in accordance with science. The only thing that probably didn't happen was the standing on the hind legs. On the one hand, the Brachiosaurus, with its almost 14 meters of height, was able to reach most treetops anyway, on the other hand, it will have been much too heavy for such feats. After all, it weighed about 58 tons.

Triceratops

We didn't see much of Triceratops in the first movie. One specimen lay sick and stunned in the grass while Dr. Sattler examined it. The size and appearance of the animal were portrayed realistically. Only in one aspect did the makers exaggerate excessively: the dinosaur excrement. In the film, these were well over a meter high. The largest dinosaur excrement ever found, however, was just 40 inches long. In action, we saw the Triceratops in "" fleeing the volcanic eruption. There, he resembled a modern-day bull, which seems entirely plausible.

Spinosaurus

In "" he was introduced as a powerful rival of the T-Rex. In reality, however, the two top predators will never have met. That's because there were 35 million years between them. The giant was shown visually fitting in Jurassic Park 3. It is very likely that he also had in reality a large sail on his back, which he could have used for heat compensation (similar to the ears of elephants). Contrary to the film it is assumed that the up to 18 meters long dinosaur stayed exclusively at the coast and in swamps, because his favorite food was fish. Therefore, it probably did not hunt other large dinos.

Mosasaurus

The giant Mosasaurus was the visitor attraction par excellence in "" ! At the beginning of the movie, the ocean-dwelling dinosaur is fed a great white shark while being applauded by the roaring crowd. As is so often the case, some cheating was done on the size. Fossil finds prove a length between 15 and 18 meters. That's about as big as the T-Rex. The Mosasaurus shown in the movie was almost twice that size.

Giganotosaurus

The first fossil of Giganotosaurus was found in 1993, the same year that "Jurassic Park" was first seen on the big screen. Thus, it is quite fitting that this top Predator was involved in the last part "". Similar to the Spinosaurus, the Giganotosaurus was also introduced as a rival to the T-Rex. Actually, it could have been a more than fair fight between the two giants. In reality, the two dinosaurs were almost the same size, with minimal advantages for the Giganotosaurus. In the movie, however, it was depicted larger to make it appear more fearsome. A more serious inaccuracy was represented by the prologue, in which we can see the first encounter of the giants in prehistoric times. In reality, however, they would have missed each other by a good 30 million years.

Velociraptor

Probably the most dangerous dinosaur in the saga is the highly intelligent Velociraptor. It is incredibly intelligent, hunts in packs, possesses deadly claws and would probably have become the dominant species on Earth, according to Dr. Grant, had it not been for a certain meteorite impact. But was that perhaps a bit of an exaggeration? In the first part, the paleontologists discover a new fossil of a raptor. A small boy calls the raptor a turkey - and with it he is not at all so wrong. For one thing, the velociraptor presumably had feathers, and for another, it was a similar size. It probably weighed 15 kg and would have been much less dangerous for the people in Jurassic Park. There is also no evidence that they hunted in packs or were hyperintelligent. Rather, based on the dimensions of their brains, some scientists assume that they were about as smart as an emu. The model for the cinematic velociraptor appears to have been Deinonychus, which closely resembles the raptors in the books. But to be fair: Velociraptor also just sounds really cool. By the way, shortly before and after the release of "Jurassic Park," some raptor species were discovered, such as the "Utah Raptor," that closely resembled those from the movies. I guess that's called bad timing.

T-Rex

The most famous of all dinos is the Tyrannosaurus Rex. Not for nothing his name means king of the dinosaurs. The first to feel the powerful bite of the lizard was the lawyer Gennaro. The actual bite force of the T-Rex was even many times stronger than shown in the movie. It was almost 12,800 pounds - the strongest estimated bite force of any land predator ever. This was necessary to cut through even very thick bones. So in the movie, we saw a rather timid T-Rex. For that, in reality, it would not have been fast enough to chase a car at over 60 km/h. Probably he could reach a top speed between 25 to 40 km/h. So maybe it wouldn't have been a bad idea to run away from the T-Rex after all, instead of standing still. Because the fact that the dinosaur could only perceive prey when it was moving is also a myth. In truth, the dinosaur had excellent and sharp eyesight. This was surpassed only by its sense of smell. It is assumed that Tyrannosaurus often helped itself to carrion and could spot it over many kilometers. Despite the discrepancies, the makers of "Jurassic Park" succeeded in creating a great depiction of the dinos that shaped generations. And the creative minds were also open to adaptations of scientists: In the prologue of the last part, the T-Rex was given a feather fluff, with which the giant was probably covered.