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Scientists have digitally rebuilt the brain of a dinosaur, revealing "surprising" insights into its diet and behavior.

Using advanced imaging and 3D modeling techniques, researchers from the UK's University of Bristol "rebuilt" the brain of a Thecodontosaurus, a sauropod that roamed what is now England some 205 million years ago.

Experts found that unlike its plant-eating relatives Diplodocus and Brontosaurus, Thecodontosaurus may have eaten meat -- and could have walked on two legs.

"Our analysis of Thecodontosaurus' brain uncovered many fascinating features, some of which were quite surprising," Antonio Ballell, a PhD student at the University of Bristol's School of Earth Sciences, said in a statement.

"Whereas its later relatives moved around ponderously on all fours, our findings suggest this species may have walked on two legs and been occasionally carnivorous," Ballell, the study's lead author, added.

Thecodontosaurus, whose name means "socket-toothed lizard," was a dinosaur the size of a large dog and lived in the late Triassic age.

Large fossils of the dinosaur, also known as the "Bristol dinosaur," were discovered in the 1800s, but scientists have only recently been able to study the specimens in detail without destroying them, using 3D models generated from CT scans.

Experts digitally extracted bone from the rock, and identified anatomical details about the dinosaur's brain and inner ear that had not yet been seen in the fossil.

"Even though the actual brain is long gone, the software allows us to recreate brain and inner ear shape via the dimensions of the cavities left behind," Ballell explained.

"The braincase of Thecodontosaurus is beautifully preserved so we compared it to other dinosaurs, identifying common features and some that are specific to Thecodontosaurus," Ballell said.

Researchers found that the creature's brain cast revealed large floccular lobes, which are important for balance, indicating that the dinosaur moved on two feet.

"This structure is also associated with the control of balance and eye and neck movements, suggesting Thecodontosaurus was relatively agile and could keep a stable gaze while moving fast," Ballell said.

"Our analysis showed parts of the brain associated with keeping the head stable and eyes and gaze steady during movement were well-developed. This could also mean Thecodontosaurus could occasionally catch prey, although its tooth morphology suggests plants were the main component of its diet. It's possible it adopted omnivorous habits," he added.

Experts also reconstructed the dinosaur's inner ears, and estimated that Thecodontosaurus had a high hearing frequency, which would have allowed it to recognize noises made by other animals, and suggests it had some sort of social complexity.

The research was published in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.

Source: https://edition.cnn.com/

Ben Hildebrand was already dead by the time Alan Grant's discovered him in Jurassic Park 3, but a deleted scene reveals how he met his end.

Jurassic Park III’s Ben Hildebrand was already dead by the time Dr. Alan Grant’s team discovered him on the island, but a deleted scene reveals exactly how he met his end. The third installment of the Jurassic Park series brought Dr. Grant back into the franchise to look for two travelers, Ben Hildebrand and his girlfriend's son Eric, lost on the park's Site B, Isla Sorna, after an ill-fated parasailing trip. Though Grant was eventually successful in recovering Eric, Ben never stood a chance against the island's terrifying array of prehistoric creatures. Jurassic Park III had no shortage of dangers, including the vicious dinosaur Spinosaurus that caused Grant trouble throughout the movie — but only one familiar threat caused Ben's demise.

At the beginning of the movie, Ben and Eric were in the middle of an illegal parasailing trip over Isla Sorna when dinosaurs attacked and ate the boat crew that got a little too close to the hazardous island. Ben detached from the crashing boat and floated to the island, but the next time Ben appears, he's a legless corpse hanging in the trees, still attached to his parachute. The final cut of the movie never reveals what attacked Ben while he was stuck in the trees, just as it never reveals what dinosaur killed the boat crew, but an earlier draft of the movie contained a death scene for Ben.

The shooting script included a scene where Ben, immobilized in the trees and unable to get away, was attacked by a pack of Velociraptors. Eric had been able to detach himself from Ben and get away, and he filmed the Velociraptors with Ben's camera as they ran away from their carnage at the end of the scene. The size and manner of attack of the raptors in the movies explains why Ben's body has no legs when Grant's team finds him, as they were attacking the easy prey from the ground. Out of the many dinosaurs that appear in the Jurassic Park trilogy, Ben met his end at the claws of one of the usual suspects.

The scene was likely deleted because it didn't add much to the story. Especially since the Spinosaurus is the big bad of the movie, an extended scene of a Velociraptor attack would do little to move the plot forward. It also decreases the tension that Jurassic Park III does an excellent job of building up, as knowing Ben's fate before the reveal of his body robs that moment of its shock value, and knowing that Velociraptors were responsible adds little tension since the audience is already familiar with that particular threat. Isla Sorna's Site B dinosaurs, including the raptors, were already revealed in the previous movie, so their appearance is practically expected.

Though its impact on the story is small, the full deleted scene of Ben's death does resolve one mystery about the potential threats on Isla Sorna. Since Site B was a cloning and preparation site that lacked the organization of the real park on Isla Nublar, leaving Ben's fate to an unknown dinosaur could have led to more questions about what other surprises awaited on the island. The Velociraptor attack is nothing new, but Isla Sorna could still have surprises in store, especially if the Jurassic World trilogy returns to Site B to explore what happened in the intervening years since Jurassic Park III. Jurassic Park's islands have not given up all their secrets, but Ben's cold case is solved, and he joins a long list of the raptors' victims.

Source: https://screenrant.com/

Mass extinctions of land-dwelling animals—including amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and birds—follow a cycle of about 27 million years, coinciding with previously reported mass extinctions of ocean life, according to a new analysis published in the journal Historical Biology.

The study also finds that these mass extinctions align with major asteroid impacts and devastating volcanic eruptions.

Paleontologists recognize five big mass extinction events in the fossil record. At the end of the Ordovician period, some 443 million years ago, an estimated 86% of all marine species disappeared. At the end of the Devonian period, some 360 million years ago, 75% of all species went extinct. At the end of the Permian period, some 250 million years ago, the worst extinction event so far happened, with an extinction rate of 96%. At the end of the Triassic period, some 201 million years ago, 80% of all species disappeared from the fossil record. The most famous mass extinction happened at the end of the Cretaceous, some 65 million years ago, when 76% of all species went extinct, including the dinosaurs. Minor extinction events mark the end of the Carnian age, about 233 million years ago, and the transition from the late Eocene and early Oligocene period, about 36 to 33 million years ago, coinciding with the Popigai impact.

The authors examined the record of mass extinctions of land-dwelling animals and concluded that they coincided with the extinctions of ocean life. They also performed new statistical analyses of the extinctions of land species and suggest that those events followed a similar cycle of about 27.5 million years.

The authors also compared the ages of extinction events with the ages of impact craters, created by asteroids and comets crashing to the Earth's surface, and the ages of flood basalts, the results of a giant volcanic eruption or series of eruptions that cover vast areas with lava and emit large quantities of greenhouse gases into Earth's atmosphere.

"These new findings of coinciding, sudden mass extinctions on land and in the oceans, and of the common 26- to 27-million-year cycle, lend credence to the idea of periodic global catastrophic events as the triggers for the extinctions," said Michael Rampino, a professor in New York University's Department of Biology and the study's lead author. "In fact, three of the mass annihilations of species on land and in the sea are already known to have occurred at the same times as the three largest impacts of the last 250 million years, each capable of causing a global disaster and resulting mass extinctions."

The researchers also suggest another possible explanation for mass extinctions beyond asteroids. All eight of the studied mass die-offs on land and in the oceans matched times of flood-basalt eruptions. Flood-basalt eruptions, lasting several millennia, release toxic gases into Earth's atmosphere, causing extreme warming and - as gases are washed by rain into the sea - acidification of the oceans. Dramatic changes in chemical weathering rates in a warmer world and altered nutrient input and productivity in the sea leads to widespread deoxygenation and sporadic sulfide poisoning of the oceans. The resulting environmental collapse will wipe out a wide variety of animal and plant groups.

"The global mass extinctions were apparently caused by the largest cataclysmic impacts and massive volcanism, perhaps sometimes working in concert," added Rampino.

As for what controls this supposed periodicity of mass extinctions on Earth no conclusive explanation has yet been given.

According to the controversial Nemesis hypothesis, a theoretical companion star to our own might be in an enormous orbit that stirs up comets and flings them our way every 26 million years. The occurrence of flood-basalt eruptions every 25 to 30 million years could be the result of long-term cycles of plumes rising up in Earth's mantle.

Source: www.forbes.com/

A new genus and species of ophthalmosaurid ichthyosaur that swam in the Late Jurassic seas has been identified from an exceptionally well-preserved specimen found in Dorset, England.

Ichthyosaurs were a successful group of large marine reptiles for most of the Mesozoic Era.

They first appeared in the Early Triassic period, 248 million years ago, and became extinct in the early Late Cretaceous, 90 million years ago.

By the Jurassic period, they had evolved into highly adapted marine predators, with a streamlined body for moving through the water, large eyes for improved vision at depth and an elongated skull with jaws full of conical teeth, suited for catching fish and squid.

The newly-identified ichthyosaur, named Thalassodraco etchesi, lived approximately 150 million years ago (Late Jurassic period).

The aquatic reptile was about 2 m (6.6 feet) long, and had a deep ribcage, small forelimbs and hundreds of tiny, delicate, smooth teeth.

It belongs to Ophthalmosauridae, an extinct family of ichthyosaurs known from the Middle Jurassic to the Late Cretaceous of Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and South America.

“There are a number of things that make this animal special, not least of which is its unusual rib cage and small flippers,” said co-author Professor David Martill, a paleontologist in the School of the Environment, Geography and Geosciences at the University of Portsmouth.

“It may have swum with a distinctive style from other ichthyosaurs.”

“One idea is that it could be a deep diving species, like sperm whales,” added lead author Megan Jacobs, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Geosciences at Baylor University.

“The extremely deep rib cage may have allowed for larger lungs for holding their breath for extended periods, or it may mean that the internal organs weren’t crushed under the pressure.”

“It also has incredibly large eyes, which means it could see well in low light. That could mean it was diving deep down, where there was no light, or it may have been nocturnal.”

“With the deep rib cage, the creature would have looked very barrel-like.”

“The specimen’s hundreds of tiny teeth would have been suited for a diet of squid and small fish, and the teeth are unique by being completely smooth.”

“All other ichthyosaurs have larger teeth with prominent striated ridges on them, so we knew pretty much straight away this animal was different.”

The fossilized remains of Thalassodraco etchesi — a near complete skull with associated vertebral column, dorsal ribs, left forelimb and other elements — were collected in 2009 by fossil collector Dr. Steve Etches from the White Stone Band outcropping in Rope Lake Bay, Dorset.

“Skeletons of Late Jurassic ichthyosaurs in the UK are extremely rare, so, after doing some research, comparing it with those known from other Late Jurassic deposits around the world, and not being able to find a match was very exciting,” Jacobs said.

“Thalassodraco etchesi is a beautifully preserved ichthyosaur, with soft tissue preservation making it all the more interesting.”

The discovery is reported in a paper in the journal PLoS ONE.

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M.L. Jacobs & D.M. Martill. 2020. A new ophthalmosaurid ichthyosaur from the Upper Jurassic (Early Tithonian) Kimmeridge Clay of Dorset, UK, with implications for Late Jurassic ichthyosaur diversity. PLoS ONE 15 (12): e0241700; doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0241700

Source: www.sci-news.com/

Producer Frank Marshall says classic cast won’t just make cameos in Jurassic World: Dominion.

While the movie industry continues to be roiled by the coronavirus pandemic, with release dates and distribution strategies seemingly changing daily, production has been more or less able to continue on some of the most highly anticipated films of the next few years.

One of those is Jurassic World: Dominion, the sixth film overall in the Jurassic Park sequence and the third in the new trilogy that launched back in June 2015 with Jurassic World. That film’s director, Colin Trevorrow, returned for the new entry, which began filming last February, was shut down by COVID-19 for several months, and resumed production last July — only to partially shut down in October for two weeks when several members of the production tested positive for the virus (they later tested negative).

Principal photography on Jurassic World: Dominion finally concluded in early November, with Trevorrow directing a cast that included returning Jurassic World stars Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jake Johnson, Omar Sy and B.D. Wong (who’s been with the franchise from the start). Joining them in the film were original Jurassic Park stars Sam Neill, Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum, all of whom have come back in previous installments but have not been in a film in the series together since the original.

Den of Geek spoke with longtime Jurassic Park/World producer Frank Marshall about uniting the current and legacy casts and whether that indicated that Dominion will likely make fans very happy.

“I think it’s a celebration and Colin wanted to celebrate the entire series,” Marshall says. “We don’t just have cameos from the original three. Everybody’s got a part in this one and it was really fun bringing them all together. I think they had a blast as well working together.”

As for whether Dominion will also serve as a conclusion to the series or a gateway to more movies, Marshall hinted, “The dinosaurs are here amongst us now and I think there’s opportunity for a lot more stories. But we’ll see.”

Dominion will pick up where 2018’s Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom left off, with the technology to create dinosaurs not only going fully open source, but a number of the creatures escaping the Lockwood estate in Northern California and making their way into the wilderness and outer urban areas. The film will reportedly address the eventual question of whether humans and dinosaurs can co-exist in a world where the latter’s return is quickly becoming rampant.

Jurassic World: Dominion is now scheduled to open on June 10, 2022, after its initial release date of June 11, 2021 was delayed by the pandemic.

Source: www.denofgeek.com/

So we may never actually extract the blood of a mosquito that bit a dinosaur 100 million years ago and use it to resurrect dinosaurs that take over an entire theme park, but we haven’t even been able to get a complete DNA profile from an insect frozen in amber. Yet.

Even bugs who met that unfortunate fate long after the dinosaurs went extinct are deceptive. They might appear like they were just crawling around yesterday, because tissues can be exceptionally preserved by tree resin or sap that eventually hardens and fossilizes, but this doesn't mean everything stays intact. DNA degrades too fast. It has sometimes been found in things as bizarre as ancient chewing gum, but that gum was way less ancient than mosquitoes trapped in 125 million-year-old fossilized resin. These are still nothing compared to the thing that created a monster — or many monsters — in Jurassic Park, but their DNA was too far gone to study. Life finds a way, but DNA doesn’t after death.

“It is doubtful that DNA stays preserved for a long time inside the resin,” paleontologist David Peris, who led a study recently published in PLOS ONE, told SYFY WIRE. "The permeability of resin, especially in hydrated conditions, makes it a non-viable environment for preserving organic molecules."

While they won’t be bringing back any Velociraptors, a team of scientists are now pushing the limit to find out how long DNA can last in a specimen like the one John Hammond was so thrilled about. More has survived in dinosaur fossils and animals frozen in permafrost than creatures caught in tree resin. Amber and other resins have proven to be nowhere near as successful at preserving the genetic code of a beetle or mosquito as they are at preserving the organism itself, and possible contamination doesn't help, but updated methods and technology could eventually find out a DNA expiration date that could help figure out the mysteries of ancient DNA (aDNA).

Prehistoric DNA can give scientists a look back in time to see how something evolved on a molecular level and how its relationships with other life-forms changed over millennia. It can also determine both extinct and extant species that an extinct organism could be related to. To figure out how soon it is before genetic information starts degrading, Peris and his team collected samples of beetles that had only just succumbed to being stuck in tree resin 3 to 6 years ago. That might sound far from anything prehistoric, but since nobody can travel millions of years back in time to when fossil bugs were first caught in the ooze, it is an opportunity to trace the beginnings of the process of DNA degradation in amber specimens.

"Ancient DNA will be highly degraded and incomplete, and it depends on the preservation state (ancient DNA may be better preserved than some current DNA if conditions are favorable or not)," Peris said. "This is why it is important to demonstrate what the identified DNA is from. In our case, we compared the sequences with our fresh specimens in order to demonstrate that they were from beetles, but from different ones than our fresh specimens."

Unlike that huge needle that went right through the amber and into the mosquito in that iconic scene from Jurassic Park, extracting DNA from fossilized insects in amber often involves soaking the sample in chloroform to free the inset before grinding up samples to examine under a microscope. The researchers found out this only fast-forwards the degradation process. DNA starts breaking apart almost immediately after death. Amber that has survived a hundred million years has already gone through enough.

Many factors can have an impact on the DNA of the bug inside, from the conditions under which it was preserved to how quickly the specimen was buried to geological phenomena that happened up until it was unearthed. There is one rare exception to bugs whose looks can deceive scientists into thinking their DNA has held up as long as their appearance. Sometimes, an insect is mummified fast enough to freeze the degradation process, with DNA being absorbed by minerals as its tissues desiccate. If that glob of amber is buried quickly afterwards, that can offer even more protection. The ancient Egyptians obviously knew what they were doing by desiccating a body with natron salts and then covering it in oils and resins.

Unfortunately, this accidental and immediate mummification is rare in amber specimens. 

"Our experiment demonstrates the contrary situation," Peris said. "Our specimens were not dehydrated after some years inside the resin, but still kept fresh internal tissues. This situation is exactly what makes the conservation of organic molecules difficult, since hydration favors the oxidation of these molecules. In additoin, amber and resin have proven to be highly permeable."

When geological processes make amber more permeable, anything caught inside is subject to quicker DNA degradation, not to mention contamination from the DNA of other organisms that might be found in the soil. This explains all the errors in thinking the genes extracted from an ancient mosquito in amber all belong to that mosquito, when they could belong to anything.

Peris believes that certain measures are required to get the most DNA out of an insect in amber. The sample should be analyzed in a DNA lab that has had previous experience with aDNA, but has not studied organisms similar to the specimens in question. Studying a species that has often been found fossilized in amber also helps. There should be controls as a basis for comparison, including those whose DNA cannot be amplified enough for study. There should also be a specialized approach to amplifying DNA that fits just that organism’s genome as opposed to one that fits many different genomes, and repetitions of the experment as well as a sequencing analysis are needed to back-check.

"We demonstrated that DNA can be preserved inside resin for some years, at least, but detected that conditions are not favorable to guarantee that he situation stayed that way for a long time," he said. "We must now begin to intestigate why that is, exactly how long the time limit is, and if it is the general situaiton; we have just started exploring it."

While Peris is somewhat optimistic about the future of studying DNA extracted from resin specimens, Hammond would be disappointed. His experiments would have probably reached a dead end. If he couldn’t even get most of the DNA out of a mosquito that could have bitten a dinosaur, there is no way his dream park would ever come roaring to life.

Source: www.syfy.com/

A new genus and species of probainognathian cynodont that roamed our planet during the Triassic period has been identified from two fossilized specimens found in southern Brazil.

The new cynodont species lived approximately 218 million years ago (Late Triassic period).

The animal, scientifically named Agudotherium gassenae, was a type of non-mammaliaform probainognathian.

“Probainognathia is a group of cynodonts that originated during the early Middle Triassic and includes the crown group, Mammalia,” Dr. Micheli Stefanello of the Universidade Federal de Santa Maria and her colleagues wrote in their paper.

“The non-mammaliaform probainognathians have a rich fossil record, and are abundant and diverse in the Triassic fauna from the supercontinent Gondwana.”

“The South American record, so far known only from Brazil and Argentina, consists of about 20 species from Middle and Upper Triassic strata, most of them based upon relatively well-preserved specimens.”

“The diversity and morphological disparity of Middle-Late Triassic South American probainognathian cynodonts are remarkable,” they added.

“They form the primary basis for understanding the evolutionary transformations underlying the origin of the Mammaliaformes, a group including mammals and their closest extinct relatives.”

The paleontologists examined two specimens of Agudotherium gassenae: a left lower jaw with the canine and postcanine teeth and a right lower jaw with incisors, canine and postcanines.

The fossils were collected at the Niemeyer Site in the municipality of Agudo in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul.

“Agudotherium gassenae is based on a unique combination of features not present in other cynodonts, such as a robust dentary, with the dorsoventrally deep dentary body and a rectilinear ventral margin,” the researchers wrote.

Agudotherium gassenae was about 30 cm (11.8 inches) long and most likely had a carnivorous/insectivorous diet, consuming small invertebrates such as insects, worms, and small vertebrates.

“The new species contributes to our knowledge of the evolutionary radiation of small prozostrodonts that occurred in western Gondwana during the Late Triassic and led to the emergence of several important cynodont groups, including Mammaliaformes,” the scientists concluded.

A paper describing the discovery was published in October 2020 in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

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Micheli Stefanello et al. 2020. A New Prozostrodontian Cynodont (Eucynodontia, Probainognathia) from the Upper Triassic of Southern Brazil. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 40 (3): e1782415; doi: 10.1080/02724634.2020.1782415

Source: www.sci-news.com/

Universal has given fans an incredible first look at some brand new dinosaur animatronics. Of course, these animatronics will be used as part of a brand new Jurassic World attraction that is currently under construction for Universal’s upcoming Beijing theme park and resort.

Thanks to theme park reporter Universal Scoop on Twitter, we saw the behind-the-scenes of not only the animatronics, but also the ride vehicle that will be used for this unique attraction! If this doesn’t get you excited for Universal’s Beijing theme park, I literally do not know what will.

As a theme park fan, it is so rare that you get to see ride animatronics in an unfinished form. The picture of the T-Rex on the bottom left is a great look at the inner workings of the animatronic that we don’t typically get to see.

Universal Beijing- Jurassic World

Yes, Universal Beijing’s Jurassic World is going to be transporting Guests straight to Isla Nublar for the ultimate dinosaur experience.

They explain the land as:

Welcome to Jurassic World Isla Nublar! It is inspired by the blockbuster film Jurassic World. Gear up to meet face to face with the gigantic and frightening dinosaurs and experience an epic adventure back to 65 million years ago!

We cannot wait to see the innovative ride that Universal is creating for their Beijing resort.

Let us know what you think about these incredible dinosaur animatronics!

Source: https://insidethemagic.net/

Jurassic Park wouldn't be the franchise it is without Ian Malcolm - but the fan favorite character doesn't get everything right!

When it comes to franchises where fans preferred the movie to the books, there’s little argument against Jurassic Park. This series has taken a life of its own, with the movies dating back almost thirty years by this point. It wouldn’t have been possible without fan-favorite characters like Ian Malcolm.

Within this universe, Malcolm is probably the only sane man, in that he’s almost always right about the things he claims will go wrong. His eccentric mannerisms might make people underestimate him, but Ian was correct quite a lot. However, there were also decisions and choices that went against him, meaning he was also wrong on a few occasions.

10 - Wrong: His Attempt To Go Public With Jurassic Park

Malcolm decided not to stick to the non-disclosure agreement he’d signed prior to arriving at Jurassic Park and went public with his experiences there. This backfired on him in more ways than one, as Peter Ludlow launched a campaign against Malcolm that widely discredited him.

By the beginning of The Lost World, Malcolm had become something of a joke to the public, considered by most as a crackpot. He would’ve done better by keeping things on a smaller scale and gathering followers before making an attempt to go after inGen.

9 - Right: Dinosaurs Will Take Over The World

One of the mistakes that Jurassic World: Dominion needs to avoid from Fallen Kingdom is reducing Malcolm’s role. Even in his cameo, he was spot on about the dinosaurs taking over the Earth. This actually stretched as far back as the first movie.

Malcolm had asserted that dinosaurs didn’t know what the food chain looked like and would react violently. He was certainly right, as the creatures eventually did spill out into the mainland, thereby ushering in the Jurassic World.

8 - Wrong: Writing About His Experience In A Preachy Manner

One of the ways that Jurassic Park III has aged well is the realistic outlook it portrayed over how dinosaurs would leave things in ruins. In the film, Eric Kirby claimed he read Ian’s book but found the writing to be too preachy and everything being about chaos.

This was a mistake on Ian’s part since his words were being misconstrued despite the fact that he was right about all he claimed. By deciding to be preachy with his prose, he made detractors out of people who would have been inclined to be in his favor.

7 - Right: John Hammond Was Basically Playing God

The clashes between Malcolm and John Hammond were a recurring part of the movies. In Jurassic Park, Ian claimed that Hammond was harassing the natural order, as dinosaurs had their shot and Hammond was only playing God by combining mankind with them.

He turned out to be right in the first movie itself, as Hammond had no control over these creatures who did try to kill everyone. What’s more, people like Ludlow and Masrani became inspired by Hammond and decided to play God as well, proving Malcolm right as the other men also failed.

6 - Wrong: Voting For The Dinosaurs Not To Be Rescued

The beginning of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom showed Ian testifying at a hearing about the dangers of dinosaurs. He was adamant that the creatures be left to die on the exploding island, but Malcolm wasn’t there to witness the event itself.

As was seen by Owen and Claire, the dinosaurs met a horrible demise, with heartbreaking sights including them drowning and succumbing to the deadly vapors of the destruction. Despite the dinosaurs’ status as genetically created animals, they still were living beings who didn’t deserve such a horrible fate.

5 - Right: Isla Sorna Shouldn't Have Been Explored

John Hammond remained adamant that he could tame the dinosaurs and hoped Isla Sorna might reap better results. He was able to convince Ian’s girlfriend Sarah to go, although Malcolm himself was aghast at the idea of going back to the dinosaurs.

In the end, Isla Sorna turned out to be an even bigger mistake than Isla Nublar, as the creatures on this island wreaked havoc on the humans. It also led to the dinosaurs almost taking over the mainland, with only Ian and Sarah’s intervention preventing this.

4 - Wrong: Distracting The T-Rex In Isla Nublar

The sheer dumbness of Malcolm’s decision to lure an actual T-Rex after himself has made this one of the funniest scenes in the series for some fans. Mainly, it’s because the move didn’t achieve much, as Alan Grant had already successfully managed to distract the T-Rex.

Ian’s effort was most definitely brave, but all it really did was get Malcolm himself injured and led to the death of Donald Gennaro since the T-Rex was led to his position. Malcolm would have been more useful had he stuck by Alan instead of throwing himself in harm’s way.

3 - Right: His Plan To Get The T-Rex Off The Mainland

Peter Ludlow was able to capture a T-Rex and his infant to bring to the mainland. This backfired when the T-Rex killed all the crew, eventually being released out in the open. Ian came up with the plan to use its infant in order to lure the T-Rex back to the ship.

This plan worked just as well as hoped, with the T-Rex pursuing Ian and Sarah before being locked up. Even better was how it led to one of the best kills in the series, as the dinosaurs finished off Ludlow when he became trapped in with them.

2 - Wrong: Asking Eddie Carr To Save Him

Eddie is easily a character who didn’t deserve to die, being a hero who saved the lives of his friends by sacrificing his own. His death arrived due to Malcolm enlisting his help, as events eventually led to Eddie being the one to try and save Ian and the others from falling down a cliff.

Eddie’s efforts only brought attention to his position, though, as he attracted the T-Rexes that had only just departed. This means he died in vain, which was possible because Ian was the one to convince Eddie to come along.

1 - Right: That Life Finds A Way

It’s gone down as his most iconic quote yet, as Malcolm predicted that dinosaurs would somehow take over and continue to grow without human intervention. He argued that life would find a way, which came to pass as the dinosaurs were able to change their genders to allow for breeding.

This was one of his earliest predictions, which turned out to be the most significant one yet as the entire series is based around this idea. Had Malcolm’s words been heeded, none of the death and destruction caused by the dinosaurs would have come to pass.

Source: https://screenrant.com/

Although its visuals still hold up surprisingly well, the 1993 film's dinosaurs are based largely on practical effects, with very little CGI.

Though Steven Spielberg's 1993 blockbuster Jurassic Park continues to stun viewers with its groundbreaking visual effects, the film employs relatively little CGI for its dinosaurs, and many of the more iconic shots are based on practical effects. When the film was originally released, CGI was still something of a novelty within the film industry. Although films like Terminator 2 had proved that CGI could be useful for animating liquid metal cyborgs, bringing dinosaurs to life by computer was another matter. In fact, Spielberg's original plan was to employ stop-motion techniques and full-scale animatronics for scenes that required full-range dinosaur movement. Instead of relying too heavily on CG effects, Spielberg and his team ended up using a masterful blend of practical effects mixed with only a few brief CGI-based sequences.

Many viewers have noted that while the original Jurassic Park is 27 years old, the visuals continue to impress, and they're arguably more convincing than recent entries in the franchise. Among other discriminating choices, including Spielberg's masterful use of scale framing, one secret to the original film's success is that the director only uses CGI as a last resort. In fact, viewers might be shocked to discover that, despite its 120-minute running time, Jurassic Park carries a mere 6 minutes of CGI work. Only when he viewed the impressive results of a CGI T-Rex test run from ILM (Industrial Light & Magic) did Spielberg give serious consideration to using computer-rendered dinosaurs at all.

With Jurassic World 3 slated for release in 2022, fans of the franchise have cause to revisit the original. Although recent entries in the series have created interest within a younger viewing demographic, some fans of the original have argued that Spielberg's sparing use of CGI makes for a superior viewing experience. Here's a rundown of some iconic Jurassic Park dinosaurs, along with an explanation of what's practical and what's CGI.

The T-Rex Is Mostly Animatronic

Arguably, the most beloved character in Jurassic Park is not Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern), or Alan Grant (Sam Neill), but the unnamed T-Rex. With its imposing teeth and permanent scowl, the animal oozes character, and carries an eerie resemblance to Dustin Hoffman in Spielberg's Hook. Most of the Rex's screen time occurs during a scene in which the animal breaks out of its paddock to assault a pair of Ford Explorers and their human occupants. Surprisingly, many of these paddock shots were accomplished using one of two full-scale animatronic T-Rexes designed by master effects pioneer Stan Winston. This means that the actors are responding to a highly detailed, fully articulated monster rather than a green screen. The scene holds up remarkably well in 2020, as does its star dinosaur.

Of course, not all T-Rex scenes could be accomplished by practical means. Sequences that show the Rex engaging in full-range motion could only be completed with CGI. After the paddock attack, for instance, there's a scene in which the T-Rex charges a Jeep driven by Robert Muldoon (Bob Peck). Because the Rex needs to move at a full-speed lope, this sequence is also CGI. The CGI Rex matches the animatronic seamlessly, and the shot remains convincing. The CGI Rex also appears later to attack a herd of Gallimimus and to take part in the raptor battle at the film's climax. Because viewers have already accepted the reality of the highly detailed animatronic T-Rex, it becomes easier to accept the CGI Rex when it finally shows up.

The Triceratops Is Practical

The Triceratops that Ellie Sattler attends to early in the film is essentially an outsized puppet. Winston's team sculpted the creature's highly detailed, pebble-textured skin by hand, along with the realistically cracked horns. Control rods were inserted beneath the animal's flanks in order to give the appearance of labored breathing.

Were such a scene to be filmed in a more contemporary Jurassic Park movie, SFX teams might opt for CGI methods, since they allow for more flexibility and a higher degree of control. Spielberg, however, trusted Winston's practical effects for close interactions between dinosaurs and human characters, and the high degree of believability adds to the performances of actors like Laura Dern and Sam Neill, whose character has been absent from the franchise since 2001's Jurassic Park 3.

The Raptors Are Often Puppets

Jurassic Park's most famous raptor scene takes place when two of the cunning predators track Lex (Ariana Richards) and Tim (Joseph Mazzello) into the park's kitchen. The vast majority of raptor shots, including the sequence where one raptor learns how to open the door, were accomplished by actors in raptor suits. Stan Winston also employed a full-scale, six-foot animatronic raptor. Designers even created a pair of raptor legs for performers to wear for a shot where the camera is posted behind a raptor's legs.

Spielberg relied on ILM's CGI only for those shots that required wider shots of fluid raptor movement, including the moment when the raptors snap at one another. As with the T-Rex, Spielberg also relies on CGI raptors during the climactic T-Rex battle, and during scenes in which the raptors execute highly athletic leaps that can't be portrayed with puppets or animatronics.

The Large Herbivores Are Mostly CGI

Curiously, many of the film's "veggiesauruses" are CG, including the dramatic first glimpse of a browsing Brachiosaurus. Later, when Lex, Tim, and Alan hide out in a tree, there's a wider establishing shot featuring an entire herd of CG Brachiosaurs. When one of the animals wanders close to investigate Lex, Spielberg wisely switches to a practical animatronic of the animal's neck and head.

On the other hand, the herd of Gallimimus that Alan and the kids encounter later in the film is based exclusively on CGI. In order to model these creatures, ILM studied the posture and physiology of real-world flightless birds like ostriches and chickens, which helps explain why the Gallimimus appear so birdlike. At the time, Spielberg's composite shots, which feature human actors, practical backgrounds, and CGI animals layered in, were considered revolutionary.

The Dilophosaurus Is A Puppet

Again, there seems to be a trend for building predatory dinosaurs via practical means. At one point in the film, conniving computer programmer Dennis Nedry (Wayne Knight) enters the paddock of a Dilophosaurus — a diminutive predator with an elaborate neck frill and a penchant for spitting venom into the eyes of its victims (though there's little evidence that the actual Dilophosaurus possessed such features).

Like various other dinosaurs, this creature was built as a full-scale, cable-controlled puppet. The Dilophosaur's spitting mechanism was adapted from a paintball gun, and the venom was mostly K-Y Jelly with food coloring. Like the T-Rex, this dinosaur projects loads of character and menace — all by way of practical means.

What To Expect From Jurassic World 3

For better of worse, the film industry has seen monumental changes since Spielberg first experimented with CGI dinos. CGI is now the industry standard for portraying large, fearsome creatures. A certain demographic of viewers will always pine for the days when films like Jurassic Park relied mostly on practical effects, including masterfully crafted puppets and animatronics. It's unlikely that, with its roster of new dinos, Jurassic World 3 will involve extensive use of practical effects, but with any luck, the film's use of CGI will at least show the kind of meticulous attention to detail that defines Spielberg's 1993 classic.

Source: https://screenrant.com/