Velociraptors Depicted as Pack Hunters in the Jurassic Park Franchise

As we build up to the premier of the eagerly awaited “Jurassic World” movie, the fourth in the “Jurassic Park” franchise, team members at Everything Dinosaur have been writing a series of articles about the prehistoric animals that feature.  Today, we look at a dinosaur that has appeared in all of the films under the “Jurassic Park” brand, the fearsome, formidable Velociraptor.

Involved in all Four Movies – Velociraptor

An aerial view of the Papo Velociraptor models. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Jurassic World and Velociraptors

It has been a few years since team members read the original “Jurassic Park” novel, but Velociraptors do feature in the book.  They are depicted as intelligent, cunning and very dangerous pack hunters, themes which have run consistently through all the movies and in “Jurassic World”, the character Owen Grady, played by Chris Pratt has three trained Velociraptors.  Owen regards himself as the “alpha member” of this Velociraptor pack.

However, two big criticisms have been put forward concerning the way the “raptors” are depicted:

1. They are far to big to be Velociraptors
2. They don’t have feathers

Let’s briefly deal with these in turn.

Size is Important

The genus Velociraptor currently consists of two species, both of which come from Asia.  Within the Everything Dinosaur database, we cite Velociraptor fossil material coming from Mongolia, China (Inner Mongolia) and Russia.  Although the classification of the subfamily known as the Velociraptorinae remains fluid with several revisions having been made to dinosaurs regarded as the “raptors” the dromaeosaurids, in the last decade or so, the raptors in the film and in the original book, written by Michael Crichton, are all referred to as Velociraptors.

These animals are depicted as six-foot-tall dinosaurs.  In reality, this is much bigger than either V. mongoliensis or the more recently described Velociraptor osmolskae.

A Scale Drawing Showing Velociraptor mongoliensis Compared to an Adult Man

Vicious Velociraptor.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

In the novel, first published in 1990, one of the lead geneticists Dr Henry Wu, a character played by B.D. Wong, in the movie franchise, states that the Velociraptors were created using DNA extracted from amber discovered in Mongolia.  So far so good, but at the time of writing, Michael Crichton would have been aware of the size ranges given for Velociraptors in academic journals, after all, the first scientific description of V. mongoliensis took place in 1924.

The Velociraptor Genus

Velociraptor was certainly not as big as depicted in the films.  It stood around one metre high and it would have been perhaps 1.8 metres to 2.3 metres long, perhaps a fraction longer.  Most of its body length was made up of that long, straight tail supported by a network of tendons.  Body mass estimates do vary, but a maximum weight of around twenty-five kilogrammes is often cited.  We at Everything Dinosaur tend to air on the more cautious side of the debate, stating a body weight of around fifteen kilos.  That is much lighter than an emu for example, think of a Velociraptor being as heavy as three domestic geese.

Knowing this, you can understand if film executives ended up subjecting Velociraptor to some “Hollywood growth hormones” to make the dinosaurs a little more scary.

Writing the Book/Researching the Characters

The research undertaken by the highly talented Gregory S. Paul is often stated as a reference source for Michael Crichton when he was researching his dinosaur characters.  As Michael prepared to write his book, he may have come across references to a potentially, much larger “raptor” from Mongolia discovered by a joint Mongolian/Russian expedition in 1989 which set out to explore vertebrate fossils in the Upper Cretaceous Bayan Shireh Formation located in south-east Mongolia (Dornogovi Province).  These fossils were scientifically described in 1999, after the book had been published and  the films “Jurassic Park” and the sequel “The Lost World” had been released in cinemas.

The fossils represent a very big dromaeosaurid dinosaur.  It has been named Achillobator giganticus and at around five metres long it represents the biggest “raptor” found to date in Asia.

An Illustration of a Large Dromaeosaurid Dinosaur Like Achillobator

Big dromaeosaurids did live in Mongolia.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

So there were certainly some very large, dromaeosaurid dinosaurs about, several species more than six foot tall.

Jurassic World and Velociraptors

No Feathers

Although the evolutionary relationship between meat-eating dinosaurs and birds has been debated for over 140 years, at the time of writing “Jurassic Park”, very little fossil evidence had been put forward that added weight to the feathered dinosaur theory.  The first papers detailing proto-feathers and quills were published in the late 1980s but it was not until the rich fossil finds of Liaoning Province in China began to be much more widely publicised that feathers in dinosaurs came to wider public attention.

A number of feathered dinosaurs are known, the majority of them meat-eating theropods.  It had been thought that only the lizard-hipped Theropoda, those dinosaurs that were more closely related to birds had feathers.  Recent discoveries, have challenged this theory and feathers have been identified in ornithischian (bird-hipped dinosaurs) too.

To read about a recent discovery of a feathered, bird-hipped dinosaur: Kulindadromeus – Did All Dinosaur Have Feathers?

Dromaeosaurid Dinosaurs with Feathers

The first dromaeosaurid dinosaur described with feathers was Sinornithosaurus millenii which was named and described in 1999, nine years after “Jurassic Park” was first published and two years after the film sequel “The Lost World” had been released.  As Velociraptor fossils are associated with coarse and medium grained sandstones, feather preservation may not have been possible in this substrate.  No feathered Velociraptor specimens have ever been found.  Feathers in the Velociraptorinae subfamily are inferred as related dromaeosaurid dinosaurs are known to have possessed feathers.

Forgiving the Film Makers

What we can say about the Velociraptors depicted in the book and the subsequent films, is that they are seen as social, pack animals, which are very agile and fearsome predators.  The fossil evidence uncovered so far certainly supports this.  Fossilised tracks suggest pack behaviour in these types of dinosaur to read about this: “Raptor” Tracks Indicate Pack Behaviour.

Our knowledge of these types of dinosaurs is growing all the time.

To read about a newly described (May 2015) species of North American dromaeosaur: Saurornitholestes sullivani – Sniffing Out a New Dinosaur Species.

Can we recommend top quality Velociraptor models for dinosaur fans?  Check out the Velociraptor models here: Beasts of the Mesozoic Articulated Dinosaur Models.

Similar to the Velociraptors Seen in the Movies

Papo Velociraptor dinosaur model.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

To view the Papo model range including dinosaur figures: Papo Prehistoric Animal Models.

The Making of Indominus rex – “Fierce or Untameable King”

The back story to the forthcoming film “Jurassic World” goes something like this.  With the death of Dr John Hammond the founder of InGen in 1997, (according to the film franchise timeline), the corporate giant Masrani began negotiations to acquire the company and within twelve months InGen was part of the Masrani conglomerate.  A plan to develop and reopen the “Jurassic Park” attraction was put forward shortly afterwards and in around 2000, the go ahead was given to create a dinosaur led attraction on the island of Isla Nublar.

“Jurassic World”

The attraction, known as “Jurassic World” was built between the years 2002 and 2004, construction materials alone are estimated to have been around $1.2 billion USD.  To give readers an appreciation of the costs of developing the new attraction, the construction of the new Wembley stadium (London), completed in 2007, cost around $2 billion USD in total.  The development of “Jurassic World” was a huge and ambitious undertaking for Masrani, the decision to go ahead with the project coincided with Masrani Global Corporation’s NASDAQ market debut (2000), the theme park was seen as a “flagship” enterprise for the organisation.  With many new shareholders to impress, the park had to be a success and when it opened in June 2005, it proved to be a huge hit, attracting 98,120 visitors in the first month alone.

Masrani – Ten Years of Making Dinosaurs

A decade of dinosaurs.

Picture credit: Masrani

The Need to Build Bigger and Better Attractions

Anyone who has ever played the video game “Theme Park”, (which was originally released in 1994, just a year after the original Jurassic Park movie hit cinema screens), knows that the rides and the park itself needs to be constantly refreshed and updated to keep visitor numbers up.  With visitor numbers at “Jurassic World” beginning to fall or at best plateau, in the last two to three years, investors began to grow concerned.  Revenue from ticket sales, merchandise and other income streams were not growing as strongly as they once were, this prompted Masrani’s Chief Operations Officer, Richard Wiesner, to describe the 2013 results for “Jurassic World” as merely acceptable, despite profits from the theme park exceeding 20 million USD that financial year.

Acceptable Profits

Richard Wiesner stated:

“The world has seen what we have to offer, but they aren’t in awe as they once used to be.  We need to change that.  You can’t expect the world’s greatest theme park to merely rely on the same attractions.  We need to be proactive, thinking of bigger and better things.”

Putting things in perspective, EuroDisney (Paris) over the same period posted a loss of 78 million Euros, but apparently Masrani wanted bigger and better…

Dr Henry Wu’s Contribution

The chief scientist at InGen, Dr Henry Wu, one of the world’s leading geneticists, had successfully combined the DNA of a number of plant species to create the “Wu flower” (Karacosis wutansis) back in 1997.  As one of the architects of the prehistoric animals in the failed “Jurassic Park” experiment, Wu was installed as one of the lead scientists to genetically engineer a whole new generation of dinosaurs for the new attraction “Jurassic World”.  InGen remained a separate company within the Masrani portfolio and one can only speculate on where their genetic research took them, but in response to the call to create bigger and more exciting attractions, it was Dr Wu and his team who were given the task of developing a hybridised dinosaur.

The project to create a genetically engineered, hybridised dinosaur is believed to have started in late 2012.  This was to be an entirely new species, one that had genetic traits from a variety of theropod dinosaurs combined with other extant (living species) – the Indominus rex project was begun.

Indominus rex

The Group’s Chief Executive Officer Simon Masrani announced in 2014, that the company had been able to successfully engineer a new type of dinosaur.  Once the news story broke, on line ticket sales to the park “skyrocketed”, it looks like 2015 is going to be a very big year for “Jurassic World”.  The dinosaur has been named Indominus rex (fierce or untameable king), note, we at Everything Dinosaur prefer to spell untameable with an extra “e”.  The new dinosaur attraction is due to open this summer and we all know that this is going to end very badly.

As Owen Grady (played by Chris Pratt) states:

“You just went and made a new dinosaur, probably not a good idea”

New Dinosaur on the Block – Indominus rex

A model of a genetically designed dinosaur. Inspired by InGen?

Nanmu Studio have introduced a range of prehistoric animal figures paying tribute to dinosaurs seen in cinema releases: Nanmu Studio Models.

If Dr Wu’s brief had been to create a bigger, more dangerous, fiercer and more intelligent dinosaur, then the project does seem to have achieved its goal.  We at Everything Dinosaur don’t know quite how the genome for this new theme park attraction was put together, originally there were two creatures, but one was eaten by the other.  I. rex does indeed look to be a mix of different meat-eating dinosaurs, with osteoderms resembling those seen on abelisaurids (Carnotaurus, Majungasaurus and Rugops are mentioned)  and the Late Jurassic Ceratosaurus, three-fingered hands of an allosaurid, but with much larger and more highly recurved claws, there is probably a bit of T. rex and a pinch of dromaeosaurid in there too.

Indominus rex – Dinosaur Attraction Due to Open in Summer 2015

A forthcoming attraction.

Picture credit: Universal Studios

A New Hybrid Dinosaur

In the pre-launch publicity for the attraction, it is stated that this new hybrid can run up to speeds of 30mph (48kmh), within the confines of its enclosure and that I. rex can roar as loudly as 140-160db, the sound created when a Boeing 747 jet takes off.  At around twelve metres, that is a phenomenal growth rate, much faster than the estimated growth rate for any other large theropod.  Amongst all that dinosaur DNA, to obtain such a rapid growth rate, we speculate that some song-bird genes much have been thrown into the mixer, after all, blackbirds for example, can reach almost adult size in just a few weeks.  Although the growth rate of various members of the Theropoda are not that well understood, ontogenic studies have suggested it was actually prey such as ornithopods that grew much more quickly.

To read about a study into dinosaur growth rates: Duck-billed Dinosaurs Grew Up Fast to Avoid Tyrannosaurs.

Awaiting the Film Release

Just how big this dinosaur could grow can only be speculated.  We suspect that in the forthcoming film this dinosaur will meet its demise, how this happens is one of the most closely guarded secrets in the history of the film franchise.  Could Indominus rex fight Tyrannosaurus rex?  Would a Spinosaurus (the big villain in Jurassic Park III), become involved somehow?  Like millions of dinosaur fans around the world we shall have to wait until the second week of June to find out.

New Poster for Jurassic World Features a Huge Mosasaur

In a bid to show movie goers new monsters in the fourth instalment of the “Jurassic Park” franchise, a marine reptile is to be included in “Jurassic World”.  The marine reptile featured is a mosasaur, a member of the Squamata Order of reptiles (lizards and snakes), that according to the film makers at least, is absolutely huge.  Everything Dinosaur team members have already written about the Mosasaurus seen in the trailer for the forthcoming blockbuster.  In that article, we did point out that this prehistoric reptile seems to have been subjected to some form of Hollywood “size ray”, as it was many times bigger than the fossil record seems to suggest.

Giant Mosasaurus

However, big teeth and jaws (no pun intended) put bottoms onto cinema seats so the Mosasaurus has been beefed up to a considerable extent.  The Great White shark eating exploits of this sea monster (as seen in the trailer), are illustrated once again in the latest poster release to promote “Jurassic World”.  In the poster, a little boy looks on whilst the super-sized Mosasaurus in its huge aquarium pursues a Great White, with seemingly only one winner likely.

The Latest Jurassic World Poster

Huge mosasaur about to tackle “jaws”.

Picture credit: Universal Studios

It is a very dramatic image and we appreciate the illustration of the pterygoid teeth, but even the largest genus of Tylosaurinae we know, (Hainosaurus) was nowhere near the size of the reptile shown in the poster.  Perhaps in captivity with all the genetic “jiggery-pokery” that has gone on, the scientists managed to create a colossal marine reptile, far bigger than any, as yet described species known from the fossil record.

The Mighty Mosasaurus

To read the earlier article by Everything Dinosaur on the “Jurassic World”  Mosasaurus: The Mighty Mosasaurus – A Little Too Mighty?

No doubt the diverse Super Family Mosasauroidea evolved into a myriad of forms.  This group of lizards, whose closest extant relatives include the Monitor Lizards, dominated life in marine environments for the last twenty million years or so of the Cretaceous.  Many types were the apex predators in their ecosystems, with some specimens estimated to have reached lengths in excess of 12 metres.  Indeed, a number of palaeontologists have cited much larger size estimates, for example Tylosaurus proriger could have been in excess of fourteen metres long.  Mosasaurus hoffmanni may have been thirteen metres long although estimates of up to seventeen metres have been given for some mosasaur genera.

The Beautifully Detailed CollectA Mosasaurus Model

Fearsome marine predator from CollectA.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

The mosasaur model picture above is from the CollectA Prehistoric life range, it was introduced in 2014.

To view this range on Everything Dinosaur’s website: CollectA Prehistoric Life Models.

Studying Mosasaurs

Many types of mosasaur were formidable, general predators.  Bones of prey recovered from the body cavities of specimens include turtles, sharks, other marine reptiles and even the bones from a giant, flightless bird Hesperornis.  It is likely that the largest of these marine reptiles would have attacked and eaten sharks, even sharks as formidable as the “Cretaceous Great White” – Cretoxyrhina (C. mantelli), which grew up to seven metres long.

Mosasaurs did not have it all their own way, large sharks such as Cretoxyrhina would have also preyed upon smaller mosasaurs.  A number of  mosasaur specimens have been collected from Kansas, which represent fauna of the Western Interior Seaway, many bones show extensive Cretoxyrhina bite marks and these have been interpreted as evidence of predator/prey interaction as well as scavenging on the carcases by sharks.

Nanmu Studio have recently introduced a Mosasaurus replica, a large model that is similar to the marine reptile from the movie franchise.  To view the Nanmu Studio series: Nanmu Studio Models.

The Triceratops Dinosaur and Jurassic Park (Jurassic World)

In this occasional series, team members at Everything Dinosaur are writing about some of the dinosaurs that appear in the “Jurassic Park” movie franchise.  Today, we feature Triceratops, an ever present in our annual survey of the top-ten prehistoric animals and one of the first dinosaurs to be seen in the original Jurassic Park film, which came out in 1993.  Triceratops is indeed, one of the most easily recognised and popular of all the Dinosauria .  Those three horns (Triceratops means “three horned face”), and the large body make Triceratops very easy to spot.

Triceratops

Two species are recognised, the largest being T. horridus, although it is possible that the genus may well be revised again and further species added.  In a recent scientific paper the evolutionary development of this genus was traced using fossils extracted from the famous Hell Creek Formation.  We at Everything Dinosaur also believe that Triceratops fossil material has also been excavated from Maastrichtian faunal stage deposits in Alberta and Saskatchewan (Canada).

To read more about the Hell Creek Formation (Montana) studies: How Triceratops Got Its Horns and Beak.

Triceratops –  A Very Popular Dinosaur

A regular in Everything Dinosaur’s annual survey of popular dinosaurs.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Triceratops is one of the first dinosaurs to be clearly seen in the original Jurassic Park movie, whilst touring the park in their custom built Jeeps, Dr. Grant’s party spot a downed Triceratops and interrupt the planned itinerary to investigate why this huge herbivore has collapsed.

A Sickly Triceratops is Examined Why is She Down?

A replica of a sick Triceratops a dinosaur model influenced by a scene from the 1993 movie “Jurassic Park”.

The Triceratops Sickness Mystery

Amongst the many curiosities to be found in “Jurassic Park”, there is the bizarre case of the collapsed Triceratops.  It is one of the very first dinosaurs that viewers get to see up close (wonderful puppetry from Stan Winston Studios), but in the film, the reason for the ill Triceratops is never really explained

Dr Ellie Sattler (played by Laura Dern), spots the animal’s dilated pupil when a torch is shone at the eye and in conjunction with the numerous microvesicles (blisters) seen on the tongue,  hits upon the notion that the cause of the sick dinosaur is something “pharmacological”.  Attending the incapacitated animal is Dr Gerry Harding, the Park’s chief veterinarian, (played by Gerald R. Molen, who incidentally was also a producer for the film).  Dr Harding explains that these animals fall sick every six weeks or so, but in the film the mysterious illness is never identified.

Dr Sattler suspects that these herbivores may have ingested some poisonous plant material.  She looks at the nearby vegetation and spots some fruiting West Indian Lilac (Tetrazygia bicolor).  These berries are poisonous, so cue Dr Sattler to explore a huge pile of “dino dung” up to her armpit to see if the Triceratops had eaten any of these berries.  No berries are found and the viewer is left wondering what was the cause of the Triceratops’s regular bout of sickness, in the film this is not explained.

The Triceratops Illness Mystery (Jurassic Park 1993)

In the book the sick dinosaur was a Stegosaurus.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

 A Sick Stegosaurus

In Michael Crichton’s book, upon which the film is based, the sick dinosaur is not a Triceratops at all but a twenty-foot-long Stegosaurus.  In the novel, it is suggested that this Late Jurassic herbivore was inadvertently swallowing berries along with stones to help grind up plant material in its gizzard (gastroliths), we are no experts on the digestive tracts of ornithischian dinosaurs but when it comes to teeth, the Triceratops, which just happened to have evolved some eighty-eight million years after Stegosaurus stenops lived, wins hands down over Stegosaurus.

Stegosaurs may well have swallowed stones to help them grind up their food, after all there were no flowering plants or succulent fruits of the angiosperms to dine on 155 million years ago.  Triceratops however, being a Late Cretaceous ceratopsian possessed a jaw crammed full of square and blocky teeth, a veritable dental battery.  What’s more, based on studies of the jaws and muscles surrounding those huge skulls, this dinosaur could probably chew its food.

The nine tonne Triceratops may not have needed to swallow stones to help its digestion.  Earlier parrot-beaked dinosaurs (Ceratopsia) such as Psittacosaurus did use gastroliths, but as far as we at Everything Dinosaur know, polished stones have not been found in association with Triceratops fossils.

Why Show a Sick Triceratops?

So why show a sick Triceratops in the film at all?  After all, the book features a Stegosaurus, an equally popular member of the Dinosauria.  Michael Crichton is much more forthcoming than Steven Spielberg when it comes to dinosaur poisoning.  In the book, the reader is told that the stones the Stegosaurus swallows are very near to the West Indian Lilac plants.  As the dinosaur attempts to top up its “stomach stones” every six weeks or so, it accidentally picks up berries as well as small stones and ends up poisoning itself once again.

There are no such explanations provided in the movie, although the answer to the Triceratops poisoning mystery is briefly alluded to when Dr Sattler examines some small stones under a West Indian Lilac bush and holds them in her hand for a moment, but that’s all the viewers get.

Why the Triceratops Detour?

So why the detour from the scheduled itinerary to examine the poorly Triceratops?  Conspiracy theorists have had a field day over this and here are some of the explanations that have been put forward:

1. The film makers had to find a ploy that would enable the tour party to be delayed so that they could build up tension about the approaching storm that was to wreck havoc on the island.
2. A scene in which the poisoning case is reasoned out by Dr Sattler was cut from the final movie.
3. It gave an opportunity for the cast members to physically interact with one of the amazing dinosaur puppets.
4. It allowed the audience to a learn a little more about the personalities of the characters such as the tenacity of Ellie Sattler, which was important for what was to follow in the rest of the film.
5. It permitted Dr Ian Malcolm (played by Jeff Goldblum), more time to flirt with Dr Sattler, helping to build up tensions between three of the main characters.

Whatever the reason, the Triceratops scene does pose a conundrum, after all, why replace the Stegosaurus in the book with a Triceratops in the film?  Perhaps, a Triceratops puppet was easier to make or looked more realistic.

Triceratops in “Jurassic World”

Expect to see Triceratops in the forthcoming “Jurassic World”, which premiers on the 12th June.  At the theme park, there is an attraction called “Triceratops Territory”, although we could not find this on the Isla Nublar map.  However, baby Triceratops can be stroked and even ridden at the “Gentle Giants Petting Zoo”, we also learn that these horned dinosaurs love getting scratched behind their huge neck frills.

Expect Triceratops to Appear in “Jurassic World”

You will see panicked Triceratops’s in “Jurassic World”.

Picture credit: Universal Studios

Triceratops remains a favourite dinosaur.  In our surveys, it is liked equally by girls and boys.  One of the best selling Triceratops models is the Papo Triceratops, this was joined last year by a replica of a baby Triceratops  in the Papo dinosaur model range so young dinosaur fans can play out their own dinosaur petting zoo adventures.

To view the full range of Papo prehistoric animal models: Papo Prehistoric Animals.