Jurassic Park is a franchise that has captivated audiences since its release by bringing them back to a time when dinosaurs roamed the earth. It has heavily influenced the public and their perception of dinosaurs. The series, however, is riddled with scientific inaccuracies, including the size, behavior, and feeding strategies of the dinosaurs. This research paper will focus on the 1993 film Jurassic Park and the portrayal of Brachiosaurus, Dilophosaurus, Tyrannosaurus rex, and Velociraptor. It will also discuss the inaccuracies of the Mosasaurus, Dimorphodon, and Pteranodon from the 2015 film Jurassic World and the unlikelihood of extracting dinosaur DNA from a prehistoric mosquito.
The title of the park itself is misleading, suggesting that …show more content…
The sizes of both dinosaurs depicted in the film are inaccurate; in Jurassic World, Dimorphodon has a wingspan of 8 feet and is depicted attacking the tourists in the park (Dimorphodon, 2015). According to Dixon (2007), Dimorphodon had a maximum wingspan of 4 ½ feet, fed on fish using their small, pointed teeth, and had a skull made up of flimsy struts of bone (p. 98). In the film a Dimorphodon knocks Owen to the ground and attempts to bite his face and neck. When you take into consideration the size of the animal and the fact that its teeth were specialized for a diet consisting of fish, it is very unlikely that Dimorphodon would attempt to kill and eat a mammal much larger and heavier than itself. The Pteranodon, on the other hand, was scaled down in size for Jurassic World. Pteranodon in the film had a wingspan of 18 feet (Pteranodon, 2015), and fossil records show that its actual wingspan was 30 feet (Dixon, 2007, p. 180). Pteranodon, like Dimorphodon, was also a fish eater, but it did not possess teeth (Dixon, 2007, p. 180). In Jurassic World they are seen attacking and carrying off humans, presumably to consume them. With jaws specialized for the consumption of fish and the lack of teeth for tearing flesh, Pteranodon would have no way to ingest its prey if it successfully killed a person, which also makes it very unlikely that they would expend the energy to carry off and kill a human if they were not going to eat
The title of the park itself is misleading, suggesting that …show more content…
The sizes of both dinosaurs depicted in the film are inaccurate; in Jurassic World, Dimorphodon has a wingspan of 8 feet and is depicted attacking the tourists in the park (Dimorphodon, 2015). According to Dixon (2007), Dimorphodon had a maximum wingspan of 4 ½ feet, fed on fish using their small, pointed teeth, and had a skull made up of flimsy struts of bone (p. 98). In the film a Dimorphodon knocks Owen to the ground and attempts to bite his face and neck. When you take into consideration the size of the animal and the fact that its teeth were specialized for a diet consisting of fish, it is very unlikely that Dimorphodon would attempt to kill and eat a mammal much larger and heavier than itself. The Pteranodon, on the other hand, was scaled down in size for Jurassic World. Pteranodon in the film had a wingspan of 18 feet (Pteranodon, 2015), and fossil records show that its actual wingspan was 30 feet (Dixon, 2007, p. 180). Pteranodon, like Dimorphodon, was also a fish eater, but it did not possess teeth (Dixon, 2007, p. 180). In Jurassic World they are seen attacking and carrying off humans, presumably to consume them. With jaws specialized for the consumption of fish and the lack of teeth for tearing flesh, Pteranodon would have no way to ingest its prey if it successfully killed a person, which also makes it very unlikely that they would expend the energy to carry off and kill a human if they were not going to eat