TheJurassic Parkseries andother dinosaur moviesare known to take some extreme scientific liberties when it comes to their depictions of pre-historic animals, with many scientific inaccuracies that can be pointed to. Paleontologists' understanding of dinosaurs is changing all the time, and some movies better reflect outdated knowledge understood at the time they were made.
The case oftheJurassic Parkfilms, paleontologists' points of contention can be somewhat written off due to Ingen creating, as Dr. Alan Grant puts it, “theme park monsters” rather than literal dinosaurs, being more abstract genetic mutants that vaguely represent the idea of a dinosaur rather than an accurate portrayal. But some inaccuracies are far more egregious than others, and are harder to forgive.
10Triceratops Droppings Weren’t Nearly That Huge
Ian Malcolm Accurately Describes The Feasibility Of Dino Dung
One of the earliest encounters Dr. Alan Grant and Ellie Sattler have with the recreated dinosaurs of Jurassic Park centers on their feces. Observing a sick, possibly dying triceratops, the paleontologists get a noseful of a massive heap of dinosaur droppings, prompting Ian Malcolm to comment “That is one big pile of sh*t”.
Turns out that Malcolm’s comments are true in the metaphorical way, asTriceratops droppings were nowhere near that large in reality. Fossilized records of dinosaur feces, called coprolites, do exist, and none of them attributed to triceratops reaching near such a huge size. That being said, it could be argued that the dung pile represents the whole Triceratops herd’s droppings rather than one individual.
9Brachiosaurus Couldn’t Stand On Its Hind Legs
The Land Titans Weren’t Nearly So Graceful
Of course, the most memorable early moment of dinosaurs actually appearing inJurassic Parkis when Grant spots a breathtaking sight, turning Sattler’s head to see what he’s seeing – A herd of massive Brachiosaurus grazing on the treetops. As if to punctuate their size, one individual rears up on its hind legs to reach a particularly tall leaf.
In reality, Brachiosaurus' unwieldy body would have been far too large to support such a feat of acrobatics, which would have caused it to topple over. That being said, it’s not so far out of the realm of impossibility that it ruins the scene as the brilliant premiere ofthe iconicJurassic Parktheme song.
8Velociraptors Were Actually Much Smaller
The Creatures In The Film Are More Like Deinonychus
One of the more well-known errors attributed toJurassic Parkis the size of the iconic Velociraptors. While these terrifying pack-hunters are shown to be standing at roughly head-height with a tall human man in the film, in reality,the dinosaur called “Velocirpator” was about the size of a modern-day turkey.
In reality,Jurassic Parkauthor Michael Crichton stole the Velociraptor’s more dramatic name and gave it to the larger and more threatening Deinonychus. The movie Dromaeosaurs are still larger than the Deinonychus, but the film strangely became retroactively accurate to a different species. Oddly, a raptor about the size of theJurassic ParkVelicoraptors, the Utahraptor, was discovered shortly before the film’s premiere.
7Mosasaurus Was Not A Kaiju-Sized Leviathan
Jurassic World Dramatically Upscaled This Aquatic Predator
One of the most memorable moments in the requelJurassic Worldis the climactic defeat of the Indominus Rex, which is thrown into the gaping maw of the aquatic beast known as the Mosasaurus. Mosasaurus was indeed a real sea predator, but the film dramatically increases its size to absurd proportions, turning it into more of amovie kaijuthan a faithful recreation.
The movie shows Mosasaurus as being able to snap up a T. Rex-sized creature in one bite, but in reality, the two were much closer in size. While the most generous estimates suppose that Mosasaurus grew to a gargantuan 18 meters in length, this still pales in comparison to its titanic depiction inJurassic World.
6Dilophosaurus Wouldn’t Have Spat Venom
Jurassic Park Essentially Made Up Whatever It Felt Like At Times
It’s certainly true that fossilized bones don’t tell the whole story on what an actual animal may have really looked like, with most fleshy tissue being lost to the millennia in the fossil record. However,Jurassic Parkwas certainly over-extrapolating when it supposed that Dilophosaurus had a frill and could spit venom, a deadly habit it uses to kill Dennis Nedry.
In reality,Dilophosaurus' skull shows no evidence of venom production or a frill, which it likely would if it were capable of channeling spurts of pressurized fluid from its mouth. Technically,Jurassic Parkcan claim such fleshy apparatuses are possible, but they’re also scientifically unlikely and impossible to prove.
5Pterosaurs Wouldn’t Have Been Able To Lift People Off Of The Ground
The Flying Animals Wouldn’t Have Been Such A Threat To People
Despitenot technically being dinosaurs, Pterosaurs have slowly become an iconic part of theJurassic Parkmovies, always managing to escape their domed enclosures and wreak havoc on the general population. InJurassic Park IIIandJurassic World, they’re shown as being able to lift hapless humans off the ground and into the air to be devoured later.
In reality, Pterosaurs like Dimorphodon and Pteranodon wouldn’t have been able to lift human beings off the ground, with the slender, weak muscles on their feet being far unsuited to take off with something so heavy in tow. It’s more likely that such animals primarily hunted fish, swallowing them whole down their gullets like pelicans.
4Spinosaurus Was More Of A Fisher Than A Land Predator
Though The Jurassic Park Franchise Somewhat Evolved With Changing Knowledge
Paleontologist’s understanding of the Spinosaurus has evolved greatly since its depiction inJurassic Park III.At the time, the creature was thought to be a long-limbed theropod standing toe-to-toe with T. Rex, resulting in the animal’s infamous win over the series mascot. However, it’s very unlikely the real Spinosaurus could have managed such a feat.
Like Pterosaurs,Spinosaurus was likely to have been more of a fish feeder, and has since been found to have shorter limbs and a more powerful tail further emphasizing its reliance on the water. The Spinosaurus' most recent appearance inJurassic World Rebirthacknowledges this updated information, but still paints the animal in far too predatory a light, attacking massive ships.
3T. Rex’s Vision Being Based On Movement
Despite being the franchise’s most iconic dinosaur and one of the most well-known dinosaurs in general, theJurassic Parkfilms get a lot wrong about the Tyrannosaurus Rex’s behavior. Most importantly, the moment in the firstJurassic Parkwhere Alan Grant asserts that the creature’s poor eyesight is based on movement.
In truth, Tyrannosaurus Rex would have had fantastic vision, with forward-facing eyes typical of a predator that likely provided excellent sight even in low-light conditions. In a way,the most powerful dinosaur ofJurassic Parkwould have been even stronger if the supposed expert paleontologist Dr. Grant provided accurate information.
2The Way Raptors Walk Around Is All Wrong
Dromaeosaurs' Body Plan Is Totally Incorrect
It’s one thing for a dinosaur movie to get a creature’s behavior or size wrong, but messing up how their bones physically worked is a particularly egregious mistake, considering it’s the one area in which paleontologists can be relatively certain. Throughout theJurassic Parkseries, Dromaeosaurs like Velociraptors hold their forelimbs like kangaroos, with wrists pointed down and folded in.
This is completely inaccurate to what scientists know about Dromaeosaurs. According to fossils,Dromaeosaurs actually held their hands with “palms” facing one another, as if they were holding a ball. To hold their arms like they do in the movies would actually shatter the creatures' wrists, which were unable to pronate in such a way.
A Tragic Relic Of Audiences' Ideas Of Dinosaurs
For far too long, theJurassic Parkfilms have popularized a completely untrue and outdated idea on dinosaurs, namely that huge theropods like T. Rex and Velociraptor were covered in lizard-like scales. In reality, dinosaurs are far more closely related to birds than modern-day reptiles, and many that walked on two legs are now understood to be covered in feathers.
It wasn’t untilJurassic World Dominionincluded feathered dinosaursthat the series finally acknowledged this glaring mistake. The originalJurassic Parkcan be forgiven for operating on the same knowledge scientists were at the time, but the series took far too long to rectify this mistake in light of modern studies.
