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Jurassic Park: Every Video Game Ranked Worst To Best

Friday, November 26, 2021

Escaping from dinosaur-infested islands is the least of some of these game's problems.

Jurassic Park was 65-million years in the making. Jurassic Park video games have been with us for twenty-eight years now (the first appearing shortly after the theatrical release of the first film in 1993).

What's particularly interesting about a franchise as diverse as the Jurassic Park films themselves is that they leave the door open for near-endless video game interpretation. Early examples were platformers/ shooters, real-time strategy sims followed, interactive educational CD-ROMs, first-person-shooters, even the Lego franchise got involved in recent years.

Unfortunately, as varied as the gameplay styles, the degree of fun to be extracted from these games has also differed greatly throughout the years.

Please also note that we were forced, regretfully, to eliminate the Jurassic Park mobile games, as there are enough of those to warrant several of their own lists, with entries there beginning as far back as the original Gameboy and Game Gear and continuing up to today in the form of iOS and Android games.

Additionally, we've been forced to cut arcade games and those that appeared only in specific regional markets, as never having encountered a given title makes it very difficult to rank.

Without further ado, let's take a look at how the Jurassic Park video game universe shakes out. Hold onto your butts!

17. Jurassic Park - Sega (1994): Sega CD

To illustrate the definition of the word "disappointment", the dictionary could just as well have included a pic of every kid in 1994 who, thinking their more powerful CD-ROM attachment would mean an enhanced version of the Jurassic Park title for the Sega Genesis, sat down to play this "game" for the first time.

These were the days when CD-Rom meant edutainment, boys and girls. Never mind action or adventure, you were in for a slightly interactive encyclopedia with some of the worst pixelated graphics this side of Dennis Nedry's workstation. Raptor fodder.

16. Jurassic Park Interactive - Universal Interactive (1994): 3DO

The short-lived 3DO wasn't about to be bested by the likes of Sega with their Sega CD Genesis attachment when it came to disappointing fans of the films.

While this game, as its very name suggests, is slightly more interactive than the former, that interactivity comes in the form of a hodgepodge of minigames like cursor shooting, tile-matching and so on.

Really being eaten by a hungry T-Rex while sitting on the toilet doesn't look so bad after a few minutes with this one.

15. Warpath: Jurassic Park - DreamWorks (1999): PlayStation

Warpath wasn't a total train wreck, and could actually be fun in a sort of illegal cockfighting ring sorta way (just with dino matchups). The trouble is it came along far too late whether the movies were your bag or video game industry trends.

2D one-on-one fighting games were nearly as extinct as the dinos themselves by 1999, and Warptah arrived well in between films. This one came and went in a flash, and we'd imagine served more to rub in the proverbial faces of aging Primal Rage fans what could have been.

14. Chaos Island: The Lost World - DreamWorks (1997): PC

Remember that time you were watching The Lost World and thought to yourself, boy what a great opportunity this film would make for a Command & Conquer style real-time strategy experience? No? Us either. But that's exactly what PC gamers got in 1997.

Overhead point of view, dozens of tiny dino sprites marching around, and occasional voice clips from the movie upon which the game is inspired all added up to an experience that was quickly forgotten. Chaos Island, however, would have made a great name for the third film.

13. Jurassic Park - Ocean (1993): DOS/Amiga

As hard as it is to imagine a world without Windows, back in 93 DOS was still a thing. If you happened to be a DOS (or Amiga) gamer at the time, Ocean had your fix with Jurassic Park.

It was played similarly to Ocean's SNES release with a slight hit in the graphical department but for gamers of the era, it provided a decent slightly overhead shooter experience coupled to Wolfenstein-like first-person segments that may have actually controlled a little better with the mouse than the SNES controller.

It's also hard to imagine a time where the PC version of a given title was far less impressive than its console counterpart.

12. Jurassic Park III: Dino Defender - Knowledge Adventure (2001): PC/ Mac

On paper, Dino Defender sounds rather interesting. It's a 2D side-scrolling romp through Jurassic Park where the player dons a cybernetic exoskeleton and must rely upon bombs and gadgets to trap all of the escaped dinos on the island.

Of course, the first time you see your character, you immediately start to wonder if you didn't boot up the wrong game. You're cartoony, blue-helmeted astronaut that fits in with the setting as well as a bright yellow Ford Explorer.

The play doesn't commit any major faux pas so much as it is rather generic in action, involves a story that has nearly nothing to do with any of the films, and was forgotten about almost instantly upon release. It would not, however, be the last we'd hear from Knowledge Adventure.

11. Jurassic Park - Sega (1993): Genesis

One of the earliest video game translations of the blockbuster film of that same year, the Genesis version of Jurassic Park was everything gamers expected out of movie tie-ins from the era and then some: 2D action, platforming, recognizable characters and locations and difficulty through the roof.

This one is perhaps most remembered for the unique player perspective, which allowed gamers to take control of Grant and a Raptor in the park. Two intertwining stories but told from opposing points of view.

The game was actually popular enough to warrant a revisit a few years later as the Jurassic Park franchise began to flex its staying power.

10. Jurassic Park - Ocean (1993): SNES

You may be asking yourself, "How different can two 16-bit versions of the same franchise really be?" Answer: very! Unlike Sega, Nintendo opted to turn to third-party developer Ocean to bring the Jurassic Park experience to their SNES platform. In 1993, we received a surprisingly forward-thinking overhead puzzler/ adventure coupled to a Wolfenstein-like first-person shooter.

The downside was that this was one of those fairly large adventure titles of the era that never bothered with things like a password system or battery save so gamers were expected to beat the entire game in a single sitting. You did get to zap roaming raptors with a cattleprod, though.

9. Jurassic Park: Rampage Edition - Sega (1994): Genesis

How do you know you have a pretty solid licensed movie tie-in title on your console? When you rerelease a year later with various enhancements to reflect the franchise's ongoing popularity.

The Rampage Edition was similar to Sega's 1993 Jurassic Park except that Grant could perform additional actions such as riding dinosaurs and using zip-lines to traverse distance. Larger levels, and more weapons and gadgets for Grant to use meant this was the definitive version of the title.

Sega taught the bitter lesson that sometimes holding off on a game you're interested in is the better choice.

8. Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis - Vivendi Universal Games (2003): PlayStation 2/ XBox/ PC

By the time Operation Genesis came on the scene in 2003, the Jurassic Park movie franchise had simmered down considerably and developers were looking to do something different with the source material. What resulted was a massive construction and management simulation game.

If you are the type of player who always felt you had more in common with InGen than characters like Dr. Grant or Ian Malcom, Operation Genesis was the game you were waiting for. It played like a cross between Sim Theme Park and Zoo Tycoon, with rewards coming in the form of a smoothly running park and happy tourists. Also, alive tourists.

You might think resource management doesn't sound all that exciting but this is worlds better than a Jurassic Park themed Minecraft mod.

7. Jurassic Park: Dinosaur Battles - Knowledge Adventure (2002): PC

At first glance, this one sounds like a PC version of 1999's Jurassic Park Warpath - where you line up dino deathmatches and perform combo movies to try and pull upsets like Ankylosaurus demolishing T-Rex.

And, while there is a real-time dino battle element at play here, there is also emphasis on sim-like planning, as you literally build your prehistoric combatant by gene splicing.

Just like InGen itself, you get to challenge nature itself with your twisted genetic creations to build the ultimate dino pit fighter. Just don't get crazy and combine raptor DNA with that of T-Rex and a chameleon or you'll ruin the fourth movie for yourself.

6. The Lost World: Jurassic Park - Sega (1997): Genesis

In 1997, most of the world had moved on to the 32-Bit (and 64-Bit) platforms, but the Genesis was still trucking along. Sega, aware of how well it had done twice before with Jurassic Park-themed Genesis games, decided to treat gamers to a dedicated sequel based on the then-new film.

This time the player was just a generic character charged with the unenviable task of cleaning up the island of dinos. Two players could work together in Cooperative Mode or work against each other in Competitive Mode. Plus new vehicles made their way into the franchise like the hovercraft.

The viewpoint had changed from the earlier Genesis titles to a more top-down perspective similar to the first SNES Jurassic Park but retained the action orientation of the Sega entries.

5. Jurassic Park 2: The Chaos Continues - Ocean (1994): SNES

At the very tail-end of 1994, PlayStation and Saturn were beginning to steal the magazine headlines but another Jurassic Park game quietly found its way to the aging SNES.

Ocean returned to develop a gaming experience that resembled the original Genesis version of the source material than the first SNES title - with a side-scrolling, shooter action while playing the role of Dr. Grant himself.

Run 'n gun simplicity proved surprisingly conducive to the Jurassic Park setting, because, really, who wouldn't want to play Contra on a jungle island full of dinosaurs?

4. Jurassic Park: The Game - Telltale Games (2011): PlayStation 3/ Xbox 360/ PC/ Mac

Back in 2011 when JP: The Game was released, the label "The Telltale Edition" wasn't yet a thing. These days it's synonymous with titles that are more like interactive movies with quick-time events and crucial decision-making responsibilities that alter the outcome of the narrative.

This one is an episodic graphic adventure based exclusively on the 1993 film - and while it is a very acquired style taste, controlling the multitude of variables of a movie you probably already have nearly memorized makes for some very unique outcomes.

While Telltale has yet to revisit the Jurassic Park franchise, this style game has since become their staple.

3. Jurassic World Evolution 1 & 2 - Frontier (2021): PlayStation 4/ Xbox One/ Nintendo Switch/ Microsoft Windows

Jurassic World Evolution (the movies having ditched the "Park" designation for bigger things) is a pseudo-sequel to 2003's Operation Genesis - a construction and resource management sim where the end goal is to create a functional park.

In late 2021 we received the sequel Jurassic World Evolution 2, which builds upon the predecessor in nearly every category: Deeper park management mechanics, a larger dino roster (84 species), and, as you'd expect when jumping to the next generation of console hardware, improved visuals.

The game's locations, models and effects are simply gorgeous and the variables the player can control are nearly limitless, whether or not the experience will prove rewarding has all to do with the player's appreciation for the simulation/ farming experience.

Missions are fuelled by the desire to unlock more park resources, a wider range of animal species, new skins, textures and so on. At the end of the day, I consider the Jurassic World Evolution series a more expansive and gorgeous continuation of what Operation Genesis promised back in the early 2000s.

2. Lego Jurassic World - Telltale Games (2015): Windows/ 3DS/ PlayStation 3, 4, Vita/ Wii U/ Xbox 360, One

Perhaps the greatest thing about Lego Jurassic World, aside from the unique brand of all-ages appropriate humor that is the Lego game gimmick, is the fact that you play through the first four films in succession.

Like all Lego titles, the backbone of the game is simple puzzle-solving to unlock the next area for exploration, all the while triggering key moments of the film franchise to be realized in their brick-infused glory. Multiplayer is typically preferred to relying on AI-powered sidekicks and there are limitless bonuses to collect along the way.

The biggest downside, however, is that it never sways far from the proven Lego video game formula - meaning if you've burned yourself out on any of the dozens of entries prior to this one, it's unlikely Lego Jurassic World will be the one to rekindle your flames of passion.

1. The Lost World: Jurassic Park - DreamWorks (1997): PlayStation / Saturn

While The Lost World is in no danger of being considered anyone's favorite movie of the franchise, the 32-bit incarnation of the franchise earns our top spot for offering up a surprisingly tricky 2.5D take on the source material that opens with players scampering around as a tiny Compy before allowing them to advance through the evolutionary ranks.

By the time the romp is over, you will have played as everything from a lunge-happy Raptor to a human hunter, human prey to the mighty T-Rex itself.

The game wasn't critically praised upon release and has largely slipped through the cracks in the years since, but playing it now is a reminder of a simpler time in gaming, when platforming, shooting, timing were all it took to handle Isla Sorna like a boss.

Source: https://whatculture.com/

Why The T-Rex Looks Hairy in Jurassic World Dominion

Wednesday, November 24, 2021

Jurassic World: Dominion's prologue features dinosaurs living naturally during the Cretaceous period and shows a hairy T-rex. Here's why.

There's a hairy Tyrannosaurus rex in Jurassic World: Dominion’s prologue, which is notably different from how the dinosaur looked in past Jurassic Park films. In fact, there are multiple dinosaurs in the Jurassic World: Dominion prologue that appear to be hairy, but most of them are new to the franchise whereas the T-rex is a staple of the series. And the answer to why the T-rex and other dinosaurs are hairy in the upcoming film can be found in one of Jurassic Park's earliest values: scientific accuracy.

Jurassic World: Dominion’s prologue contains footage that won't appear in the actual film and is rather mean to offer a preview of what to expect. In the prologue, dinosaurs of all kinds go about their daily lives in the Cretaceous period; tri-horned Triceratops bathe in a river, long-necked Quetzalcoatlus fly around and fish, and a sneaky Oviraptor dines on a nest of abandoned eggs. Tension rises when a Tyrannosaurus rex picks a fight with an even stronger predator, a Giganotosaurus. Flashing forward 65 million years, another Tyrannosaurus is pursued by a helicopter from the US Fish and Wildlife Service through a drive-in movie theater, to the terror of the moviegoers.

Curiously, while the T-rex in the modern-day (the one originally seen in the first Jurassic Park movie) is still scaly, the T-rex in Jurassic World: Dominion's prologue has thin hair covering its body. It's likely that this isn't hair at all, but feathers; scientific evidence has shown that dinosaurs likely had feathers, just like their closest genetic relatives, birds. Since dinosaurs and birds derived from the same ancestral species, it's almost certain that all dinosaurs would have had some amount of feathers, even if only vestigial ones. As feathers are unable to be fossilized like bone, little proof for dinosaurs’ feathers was found until somewhat recently, explaining why the original Jurassic Park’s T-rex didn’t have feathers.

Other species in Jurassic World: Dominion’s prologue also exhibit feathers. The Oviraptor looks very much like a chicken as it dines away on some unfortunate dinosaur’s eggs, feathery plumes decorating its arms and tail. Though not dinosaurs but technically pterosaurs, the giant, flying Quetzalcoatlus exhibits feathers all over its head and down its back. It appears the feathers on the past Tyrannosaurus rex were not merely a novel aesthetic, but a use of scientific evidence to inform the creature design in Jurassic World: Dominion. This harkens back to the original Jurassic Park, in which the movements of the dinosaurs were based on birds rather than other reptiles, as per scientific theory.

The difference in appearance between the two Tyrannosaurus rexes in Jurassic World: Dominion’s prologue poses a new question, however: Why doesn’t the modern-day T-rex have feathers, too? As mentioned in both Jurassic Park and Jurassic World, the DNA of dinosaurs, retrieved from preserved blood in ancient mosquitos, isn't pure; DNA from other animals was used to complete the genetic code, such as frog DNA, producing a genome for the closest approximation of dinosaurs. It's possible that the genetic information for feathers wasn't preserved, being replaced with something different. The modern version of the T-rex in Jurassic World: Dominion may not be a true, feathery dinosaur, but it's very much a functional equivalent.

Source: https://screenrant.com/

Missouri Dig Site Is Home To At Least 4 Rare Dinosaurs, And There Could Be More

Friday, November 26, 2021

The dinosaur bones of Parrosaurus missouriensis, Missouri's state dinosaur, were uncovered over four years, starting in 2017.

The first tracings of dinosaurs in Missouri were found in the 1940s on the Chronister family's property when they were digging a well. In October, nearly 60 years later, another set of fossils from the same species were uncovered about 50 feet (15 meters) away.

After comparing and matching the tail vertebrates of these discoveries, paleontologists described them as "relatively primitive" duck-billed dinosaurs.

The specimen of the state dinosaur of Missouri, named Parrosaurus missouriensis, was excavated after a years-long process that began in 2017, Chronister site curator Peter Makovicky said. Makovicky is a professor of Earth and environmental sciences at the University of Minnesota.

"Whenever you find a locality in the Midwest or in Eastern North America, where you're getting multiple dinosaur skeletons coming out of one site, it's really a windfall with almost no parallels," he said.

Fossils in Missouri are rare -- the Chronister site, a couple dozen acres of woodland located near Bollinger County in Missouri, is the only place fossils have been found in Missouri, according to Erika Woehlk, a visual materials archivist at the Missouri State Archives. Most dinosaurs in the United States have been found in the West.

"No one thought that there were any dinosaurs in Missouri. It's just unheard of to find dinosaur fossils in this part of the country," said Abigail Kern, office manager for the Sainte Genevieve Museum Learning Center in Missouri.

But this site is rich.

The crew had to work around wet clay to carefully excavate the fossil.

While uncovering the dinosaur, Makovicky and his team found several turtle fossils, which paint a fuller picture of the ancient ecosystem. Paleontologists have also found parts from at least four different dinosaurs, Makovicky said, including a juvenile dinosaur of the same species found in the early 2000s.

The largest block of the dinosaur -- 2,500 pounds (1,134 kilograms) -- was excavated with the help of a crane on October 15. The fossil will make its way to Chicago's Field Museum for preparation and research.

A fossil site decades in the making

The fossils found in the 1940s were sent to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. The site remained stagnant until the 1980s, when renewed interest in the fossils led Missouri paleontologist Bruce Stinchcomb to purchase the property from the Chronisters.

Scientists debated this fossil's genus for decades. In 2018, paleontologists landed on the initial genus, Parrosaurus, coined in 1945. This dinosaur has been reclassified four different times, but Woehlk said reclassification isn't that unusual.

Wet clay at the excavation site, and the pandemic, complicated and prolonged the four-year process, Makovicky said. He's more accustomed to excavating fossils from hard rock, so the team had to work slowly around the softer clay.

The excavation team is shown with the largest block of the dinosaur -- 2,500 pounds -- removed with the help of a crane October 15.

With the observations and findings of the site, paleontologists can have a better understanding of the ancient environment -- and assess areas for further research and excavation.

Makovicky said they are still determining the exact age of these fossils and learning more about the distribution of dinosaurs across North America.

"There's just a lot more to learn about these ancient environments and how they relate to our knowledge of ecosystems and evolution," he said.

Sainte Genevieve Museum Learning Center is home to the juvenile specimen, and its laboratory is viewable to the public. Starting in December, museum visitors will be able to watch paleontologists and other scientists prepare the fossils, according to Kern.

Because fossils are hard to come by in the Midwest, Kern hopes these rare discoveries will get children excited about archaeology and geology.

"We're a very small town in rural Missouri so we're just really excited to be able to bring this level of scientific finding to our town and to help push it out to all of the communities and the schools around us," Kern said.

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

How Dominion's Prologue Perfectly Connects To Spielberg's Jurassic Park

Wednesday, November 24, 2021

Jurassic World Dominion's prologue shows the T-Rex 65 million years ago and ingeniously connects to the dinos' origin in Spielberg's Jurassic Park.

The prologue to Jurassic World Dominion ingeniously connects to Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park. Directed by Colin Trevorrow, who also helmed 2015's Jurassic World, Dominion will end his trilogy as well as the overall six-film saga that Spielberg's Jurassic Park began in 1993. In addition, Jurassic World Dominion will reunite the original Jurassic Park legacy characters of Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill), Dr. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern), and Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), who will meet the protagonists of the Jurassic World films, Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) and Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard). Fittingly, Jurassic World Dominion reaches all the way back to the distant past 65 million years ago to bring the dinosaur saga to its conclusion.

Originally released with F9: The Fast Saga during summer 2021, Jurassic World Dominion's prologue begins during the Cretaceous period, showing the dinosaurs in their natural habitat 65 million years ago. Soon, the focus falls on a new dinosaur, the Gigantosaurus, which is seen in Jurassic World Dominion for the first time. The massive super predator gets into a battle with a Tyrannosaurus Rex and quickly kills it. When the T-Rex falls, a mosquito lands on its lifeless head and drinks its blood. Jurassic World Dominion's prologue then cuts to 65 million years later as a T-Rex runs amok at a drive-in movie theater. This is because the dinosaurs that were brought to the mainland during Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom were set loose and are now spreading across the planet.

However, it's no coincidence that the T-Rex is the focus of the prologue because that particular super predator is actually the clone of the T-Rex that the Gigantosaurus killed in Jurassic World Dominion's prologue! Every Jurassic Park fan remembers the famous history lesson scene when John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) showed Drs. Grant, Sattler, and Malcolm how he cloned his dinosaurs. The dino DNA was harvested from a mosquito that drank the blood of dinosaurs during the Cretaceous period and was trapped in amber for 65 million years. Incredibly, the mosquito that drank the dead T-Rex's blood in Jurassic World Dominion's prologue is the same one that Hammond's genetics company, InGen, found in amber and extracted dino DNA from the blood the insect drank. So Jurassic World Dominion's prologue is the literal origin story of how Jurassic Park's cloned T-Rex and dinosaurs came to be.

The cleverest part of Jurassic World Dominion's prologue is that it doesn't retcon Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park but adds a new level of nuance to the cloned dinosaurs' origin story that fans had long accepted at face value. Of course, Jurassic Park's origin story also established that InGen was never able to get complete DNA strands from the blood they harvested from mosquitos trapped in amber. Hence, InGen used frog DNA to complete the data strands and clone their dinosaurs. So, Jurassic Park's T-Rex isn't an exact duplicate of the super predator that died during the Cretaceous period, and this explains why there appears to be hair, fur, or possibly feathers on the dead T-Rex's body 65 million years ago. What InGen did was design their dinosaurs to look the way people would imagine the prehistoric creatures would look since they had the power to manipulate the animals' genetics.

The rampaging T-Rex in Jurassic World: Dominion's prologue's present-day also connects back to a similar rampage by a Tyrannosaur in Steven Spielberg's The Lost World: Jurassic Park. The climax of Spielberg's 1997 sequel saw a captured T-Rex brought from Isla Sorna AKA Site B to San Diego, where it got loose and stomped around the city and suburbs. But that was a different T-Rex from the original one in Jurassic Park, which is the same super predator that is now free to roam Northern California in Jurassic World Dominion. Fans won't know what will ultimately become of the dinosaurs (and humanity) until Jurassic World Dominion releases in June 2022 but Colin Trevorrow's film already smartly connects to Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park in shrewd ways.

Source: https://screenrant.com/

Kaririavis mater: Fossil of 115-Million-Year-Old Bird Found in Brazil

Wednesday, November 24, 2021

Life reconstruction of Kaririavis mater. Image credit: Divulgação.

Paleontologists working in Brazil have uncovered the fossil of an ornithuromorph bird that lived during the Early Cretaceous period.

Kaririavis mater lived in what is now Brazil some 115 million years ago (Early Cretaceous period).

Kaririavis mater lived during the Cretaceous period, when the supercontinent Gondwana — which included the South America, Africa, Australia, Antarctica and India — was splitting,” said Dr. Ismar de Souza Carvalho, a paleontologist at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro and the Universidade de Coimbra, and colleagues.

The new species is a member of Ornithuromorpha, a large group of birds that contains all extinct and living species but not Mesozoic enantiornithes.

“It had both primitive and modern morphological characteristics, making its behavior and ecological niche still mysterious,” the paleontologists said.

“It had coarse feet, very stout toe phalanges, and a claw on the second toe, very curved and proportionately large for its size, unlike those found in most ornithuromorphs, which had slender feet and slender toes.”

The fossilized remains of Kaririavis mater — an isolated right foot with some feathers — were recovered from the Crato Formation at Pedra Branca Mine, in Brazil’s Ceará state.

Its unique foot conformation indicates that it may belong to an unknown ornithuromorph clade with some cursory similarities to living flightless ratites, such as the rhea or the ostrich.

The 115-million-year-old fossilized foot of Kaririavis mater. Image credit: Carvalho et al., doi: 10.1080/02724634.2021.1988623.

According to the scientists, Kaririavis mater is the earliest known member of Ornithuromorpha from Gondwana and the oldest fossil bird from South America.

“The presence of Early Cretaceous ornithuromorphs in Brazil indicates that the clade was widespread in Gondwana during the Mesozoic,” they said.

“The discovery brings light to the discussion on the origin of birds on Earth,” said Professor José Xavier Neto, a researcher at the Universidade Federal do Ceará.

“China is the world’s most important source of primitive bird fossils. But, with this unprecedented discovery, the place of origin of the birds is now not clear and definitive: did the birds appear in China and then fly to Brazil or did they appear in Brazil and then fly to China?”

The discovery of Kaririavis mater is described in a paper published online in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

_____

Ismar de Souza Carvalho et al. A new ornithuromorph bird from the Lower Cretaceous of South America. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, published online November 11, 2021; doi: 10.1080/02724634.2021.1988623

Source: www.sci-news.com/

The Ending Of Every Jurassic Park And World Movie Explained

Tuesday, November 23, 2021

Originally based on the 1990 science fiction novel by Michael Crichton, the 1993 film "Jurassic Park" spawned one of the world's most successful franchises, one that includes books, theme park rides, TV shows, mountains of merchandise, and of course, multiple movie sequels.

Centered around a dinosaur theme park — featuring actual dinosaurs, which have been cloned back to life by ambitious and groundbreaking scientists — "Jurassic Park" is a tense, adrenaline-fueled tale of wonder and terror, as the site's first visitors scramble desperately to escape the isolated island of the theme park after the security systems break down and the dinosaurs begin to roam free. Sequels to the film followed similar premises, with visitors returning to the abandoned world of the dinosaurs and encountering the wild creatures or, eventually, buying tickets to a new dino-themed park that goes similarly awry.

With five feature films (and one short film) spanning nearly three decades at this point — and more on the way – that's a lot of characters and stories to keep track of. Yet even though the modern "Jurassic World" films have served as a sort of soft reboot of the original franchise, they're all still set in the same world, with each film chronologically following the last, even if many years sometimes pass in between. So in order to understand the ongoing story in each of the "Jurassic" films, it's important to recall what happened in the ones that came before. To that end, here's a look back at the ending of every "Jurassic Park" and "Jurassic World" film.

Jurassic Park ends with a visitor center showdown

The original "Jurassic Park" introduces audiences to the concept of a theme park centered around living dinosaurs ... and all of the deadly flaws in such an idea. After using modern technology to resurrect the long-extinct creatures, modern technology turns out to be the park's Achilles' heel when a hacker's software command, combined with a tropical storm, knocks out the island's power grid, which controls everything from the dinosaur paddock fences to the visitor center door locks. Once the park goes offline, the various human visitors spend the film's next act trying to stay alive long enough to reconnect with one another and turn the power back on.

The film culminates in the park's state-of-the-art visitor center (spared no expense), where paleontologist Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and paleobotanist Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) work to reboot the park's computer systems while also watching over the park creator's teenage grandchildren, Tim (Joseph Mazzello) and Lex (Ariana Richards). However, the refuge of the visitor's center proves not so safe after all when Velociraptors get inside and begin hunting them.

Fortunately, Lex is a computer fanatic and figures out how to reboot the system herself. As Ellie and Grant hold off the freakishly smart apex predators, Lex resets (among other things) the phones and the door locks, which buys them just enough time to alert park creator John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) to call the mainland for rescue ... before they have to run from the raptors again. But right when they seem cornered by the raptor pack, the escaped Tyrannosaurus rex comes crashing into the lobby of the visitor center, drawing the raptors' attention and giving the humans the chance to escape.

The group meets up with Hammond and a badly injured Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), who are driving one of the island's few gas-powered jeeps to the helicopter pad, where Hammond's company has a chopper waiting. As they fly off the island to safety, theoretically leaving the dinosaurs far behind as they head for civilization, Grant sees a flock of birds soaring over the water, calling back to an earlier line in which Tim asked him about his theory that dinosaurs evolved into birds. The scene reminds viewers of the film's theme that "life finds a way" and begs the question of whether the dinosaurs really are as well-contained as the characters think.

The Lost World: Jurassic Park sees dinosaurs and man collide in the city

The sequel to "Jurassic Park" begins with mathematician Ian Malcolm being persuaded by John Hammond to return to an island inhabited by wild dinosaurs — this one a neighbor to where the original park was built — in order to document the beasts. Hammond hopes Ian and his new ragtag team can build a strong enough case to encourage everyone to leave these creatures alone, especially as a group of unscrupulous businessmen and scientists plan on using the animals to make some serious stacks of cash.

Of course, no part of this mission goes according to plan, and it eventually becomes clear that Hammond's hubristic nephew, Peter Ludlow (Arliss Howard), intends to transport dinosaurs off the island and take them to the mainland, with the intention of opening a new park in San Diego. And before Malcolm and his girlfriend, paleontologist Sarah Harding (Julianne Moore), can persuade Ludlow that said park is a terrible idea, nature takes matters into its own hands when a boat carrying an adult T-rex crashes into the docks and the dinosaur is accidentally released into the city.

As the T-rex cuts a bloody path of destruction through San Diego, Malcolm and Sarah head to the site of the new park, where the dino's injured infant is being held. They use the infant to lure the adult T-rex back to the boat, then jump off the ship. Unfortunately, Ludlow remains on board, where he tries to recapture the infant, only to wind up incapacitated by the adult and then used as the object of the infant's hunting lesson.

Meanwhile, coming back onto the ship after the T-rex takes the bait and enters the cargo hold, Malcolm and Sarah work together to tranquilize it and trap it there, allowing the vessel to take the creatures safely back to the island. The plans for the San Diego park are abandoned, and the T-rex is returned home, this time with a sizable naval escort. The film closes with John Hammond arguing in a CNN interview that the dinosaurs will best be served by humans keeping their distance.

Returning to the island in Jurassic Park III proves a grave mistake

Of course, humans prove incapable of leaving the dinosaurs alone for long. Not long after the island where most of the dinosaurs live, Isla Sorna, is declared a nature preserve by the Costa Rican government, a tourism industry springs up around it. Thus, it's the basis for the plot of "Jurassic Park III," which sees a desperate set of parents luring Alan Grant back to the island under false pretenses after their son goes missing while parasailing nearby.

But, of course, their plan to safely recover their son immediately goes sideways, and Grant spends the rest of the film trying (and, in some cases, failing) to get all the members of the rescue party safely off the island. In the process, his assistant, Billy (Alessandro Nivola), steals two raptor eggs, thinking they'll help them secure a new round of funding for their research. Shortly thereafter, Billy is carried off by Pteranodons and presumed dead.

The ending of the film sees Grant and the remaining survivors finally able to call for help when they locate a missing satellite phone in a pile of Spinosaurus droppings (which are also the only remnants of a former member of their party). Grant uses the phone to call Ellie Sattler for help, but the call is cut short due to — what else — a dinosaur attack. The following day, the group is surrounded by raptors, but they're able to use the stolen eggs, along with a sound made using an artificial raptor larynx, to distract them long enough to escape.

Once our heroes make it to the beach, it turns out Ellie understood enough of Grant's call to send help in the form of the Marine Corps and the Navy. Safely aboard the helicopters — along with Billy, who was surprisingly found alive — Grant sees a flock of Pteranodons flying over the water as they leave the island, calling back to the closing shots of the first film.

Jurassic World refuses to learn from the past

Set nearly two decades after the first movie, "Jurassic World" serves as a soft reboot for the series, following ethologist and raptor trainer Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) and operations manager Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) through the disastrous opening of a brand new theme park on the original park's home of Isla Nublar, spun up by yet another eccentric billionaire with a soft spot for dinosaurs.

This time, the breakdown of the park is triggered by the escape of the Indominus rex, a genetically engineered hybrid dinosaur that turns out to be far too smart and dangerous to remain safely contained. The escape of the Indominus rex kicks off a chain reaction leading to the complete breakdown of the park's containment systems, allowing all of the dinosaurs to break out.

The end finds Owen and Claire — along with Claire's two nephews, Gray (Ty Simpkins) and Zach (Nick Robinson) — cornered by the Indominus rex among the park's gift shops. As a last resort, Claire decides to free the T-rex from its paddock and lure it toward the attacking Indominus rex (a risky move, considering the first film clocked the T-rex's top speed at 32 miles per hour, making it faster than the fastest human in the world). But Claire's gambit pays off, and the two dinos decide to throw down. The battle isn't going great for the T-rex, but that's when Blue — one of the Velociraptors trained by Owen — joins in the fight, providing enough of a distraction to enable the T-rex to recover.

The two dinosaurs inadvertently drive the Indominus rex toward the Mosasaurus tank, where the massive aquatic beast suddenly emerges from the water to drag the Indominus down into the murky depths below. Owen, Claire, and the two children are successfully evacuated from the park, along with the other survivors. The kids are reunited with their parents while Owen and Claire decide to stick together. Meanwhile, dinosaurs once again take over the abandoned island.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom introduces a new paradigm

Once again, just because the park closes, that doesn't mean that humanity is no longer concerned with an island of living dinosaurs.

"Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom" finds people split between those who would let the prehistoric inhabitants of Isla Nublar perish in the imminent eruption of an active volcano, and those — including Claire — who feel an obligation to rescue them. Lured back to the island with a false promise from Benjamin Lockwood (James Cromwell), yet another wealthy California businessman, Claire and Owen believe their mission is to save the dinosaurs, only to learn that they've unwittingly thrown in their lot with a black market dinosaur breeding and trading ring.

Not only is this ambitious billionaire still breeding and selling hybrid dinosaurs — this time producing the Indoraptor — he's also cloning humans, as evidenced by his young "granddaughter," Maisie (Isabella Sermon), who turns out to actually be a copy of Lockwood's deceased daughter. The end of the film sees Owen, Claire, Maisie, and Claire's coworkers and fellow activists Franklin Webb (Justice Smith) and Zia Rodriguez (Daniella Pineda) eluding the Indoraptor as it hunts the humans in Lockwood's mansion following an underground auction that ended in catastrophe.

Ultimately, Blue the Velociraptor manages to fight and kill the Indoraptor, but when the other dinosaurs that were being held for the auction are nearly killed in their cages by poisonous gas, Maisie frees them over Owen and Claire's objections, releasing them into the wild. The end of the movie sees Ian Malcolm addressing the Senate about the new "Jurassic World" they now inhabit, as we see the dinosaurs roaming free in the United States.

Battle at Big Rock gives a glimpse of a new world

Set a year after the events of "Fallen Kingdom," the short film "Battle at Big Rock" follows one horrifying night through the eyes of a young family on a camping trip to Big Rock National Park in Northern California.

With dinosaurs now reincorporated back into the natural world, the family's peaceful evening barbeque is interrupted when an adult and baby Nasutoceratops wander into their camp. The family watches quietly from their RV, explaining that in the event of a dinosaur sighting, the park rangers had advised them to remain calm and wait for the animals to go away. But that plan quickly proves untenable when an Allosaurus comes into the camp and attacks the Nasutoceratops family and knocks the RV on its side.

When the family's baby begins to cry, the Allosaurus attacks the RV, ripping it apart and leaving the humans without any protection. As the parents prepare to defend their children — armed with only a fire extinguisher and a piece of debris — their young daughter finds their neighbor's crossbow and shoots the Allosaurus in the face, driving it away.

During the closing credits, we see this is just one of the countless encounters between humans and dinosaurs that have occurred following their release at the end of "Fallen Kingdom." The credits depict scenes of a Stegosaurus causing a car to veer off the road, a Pteranodon eating a dove released at a wedding, and a small pack of Compsognathus chasing a little girl on a farm, making it clear that the world has profoundly changed from what it was before "Fallen Kingdom."

Source www.looper.com/

What Dinosaur Has 500 Teeth? Top Facts You Don’t Know!

Monday, November 22, 2021

The Nigersaurus, also known as the “Niger lizard” or the “Niger reptile,” was a species of dinosaur that lived in the early Cretaceous period, between 121 million years ago and 99 million years ago.

More than 500 teeth and a purely herbivorous diet distinguished this unusual dinosaur from others. The herbivorous sauropod Nigersaurus belonged to the genus Sauropoda, which included other enormous herbivores. Brachiosaurus and Diplodocus are two other notable sauropods.

In comparison to an African elephant, this sauropod was estimated to have been between 15 and 30 feet long and to have weighed between 4-5 tonnes.

A large number of postcranial bones have been found in Niger, Algeria, and Tunisia, where the dinosaur is said to have originated. In the Gadoufaoua region of central Niger, in the Elrhaz Formation, human remains have been found.

Fossils from the Nigersaurus are said to have been discovered in 1976, but it wasn’t until 1999 that the species was officially named. Nigersaurus taqueti, named for French palaeontologist Philippe Taquet, the first to discover the sauropod’s remains, is thought to be the only species in the genus.

Distinguishing Characteristics

Paul Sereno, a palaeontologist, dubbed the Nigersaurus the “mesozoic cow.” “The weirdest dinosaur I’ve ever seen,” Sereno was quoted as saying of this sauropod.

Nigersaurus Teeth

The Nigersaurus had more than 500 teeth as a distinguishing feature. In what is now the Sahara desert, this unusual herbivore is said to have grazed for food. It ate by snatching food out of the air with its long, snout-like snout. Paul Sereno, a palaeontologist, was also quoted as saying that the Nigersaurus’ face resembled that of a vacuum cleaner.

Reconstructed skeletons show that Sereno’s mouth closely resembles the end of a vacuum cleaner, proving that the vacuum cleaner comparison made by Sereno was correct.

With four large side fenestrae, or openings in the skull, along with thing bones, the wide muzzle proved to be a specialised tool for feeding. Over 500 teeth adorned its wide muzzle, with new ones growing in at a rate of one tooth every fourteen days.

When it came to the Nigersaurus’s jaw, teeth, and mouth, it was anything but conventional. It is the only known tetrapod with jaws wider than its skull in terms of jaw structure. Along with this, it is the only tetrapod that has been able to examine teeth that extend laterally across the front of the mouth.

For a sauropod dinosaur, this creature had an unusual tooth structure. The Nigersaurus, a sauropod that has never been seen before, has been found to have a unique feature: dental batteries. Triceratops and other beaked herbivores like it, like the triceratops, had dental batteries, but sauropods did not.

Herbivores used dental batteries because of their high processing efficiency. As long as a tooth wore out in a column, it would be replaced by the one behind it, which would take the old tooth’s place, according to legend. Like a pod of peas, the tooth columns would be tightly packed together. There are many ways in which a dinosaur’s mouth could hold hundreds of teeth, both old and new.

The upper jaw of the Nigersaurus contained about 60 columns of small, needle-like teeth. The lower jaw, on the other hand, had about 68 columns. There were nine sets of replacement teeth in the nigersaurus’s jaw when all of the columns were taken into consideration.

Nigersaurus’ teeth are also unique because of their orientation. There’s no point in having teeth that extend laterally in order to chomp down on the leaves that are hanging from the trees. Nigersaurus feeding and grazing on the ground is supported by evidence. That’s how “mesozoic cow” got its start. Feeding amongst the low-lying plants, the wide muzzle would be an ideal companion. The dinosaur would have been able to eat its way through the vegetation thanks to its many teeth. For the Nigersaurus, the dental batteries would have been essential because each new tooth was said to have been replaced every fourteen days.

Nigersaurus Size

As a member of the sauropod family, the Nigersaurus was the largest known dinosaur. According to other sauropods, the Nigersaurus was a much smaller creature. Diplodocus measured an average of 85 feet long, whereas the Nigersaurus was estimated to be around 30 feet long. Diplodocus, on the other hand, was said to have weighed as much as a modern African elephant (around 4-5 tonnes). Because of this, we can classify the Nigersaurus as a medium-sized dinosaur. The Nigersaurus also had a shorter neck than other members of its family, making it a smaller relative.

Nigersaurus Facts – Our Top Five Picks

1. Nigersaurus is described as a short-necked ‘long neck’ dinosaur

Long necks are the primary distinguishing feature of the sauropod family. This is six times longer than the world’s longest giraffe neck, which is 15 metres in length. For the Nigersaurus and its closest relatives (the Rebbachisauridae), however, this is not the case. Rebbachisaurids had necks of less than 10 metres in length in the vast majority of cases.

2. The ‘Niger Lizard’

The Nigersaurus is known as a ‘Niger lizard’ or a ‘Niger reptile’ in English translation. Due mainly to the discovery of its remains in what is now Niger.

3. The discovery of Nigersaurus babies

Nigersaurus fossils were discovered by palaeontologist Paul Sereno during an expedition. A baby Nigersaurus’ upper jaw was described as “fitting on top of a silver dollar,” despite the fact that fully grown adults could reach 30 feet in length.

4. Plants only

The sauropod family includes the Nigersaurus. Sauropods were any of the Sauropod dinosaurs. Size, neck and tail, four-legged stance and herbivorous diet were some of their most distinguishing characteristics (plant eaters.)

5. The posture debate

Whether or not the Nigersaurus slouched or stood tall has been debated by scientists. When these creatures were first discovered, some scientists thought they might be able to keep their skulls at a constant 67-degree angle, making it easier for them to find food. It has been claimed that the vertebrae of dinosaurs allowed for a much greater range of motion than previously thought. So, the Nigersaurus would have behaved more like other sauropods, with their necks tucked in.

What dinosaur has the most teeth?

In spite of its impressive tooth count, Nigersaurus falls short of setting a new record. 1,400 teeth were rumoured to have been in the mouths of Hadrosaurs. Among living creatures, their teeth were said to be the most complex of all time.

There you have it, a 500-tooth dinosaur. It’s the Nigersaurus. Even though it doesn’t have the most impressive skeleton of any dinosaur, this strange and unusual sauropod is sure to get people’s attention. With so many teeth at their disposal, what else can you expect?

“What Dinosaur Has 500 Teeth?” was a fascinating read. Tell us one of your favourite Nigersaurus facts. Let us know if you have any questions!

Source: www.techstry.net/

Jurassic Park’s Biggest Unanswered Question Could Have Set Up the Sequels

Saturday, November 20, 2021

Let's take a look back at the Jurassic Park franchise's longest-running unanswered question: the fate of Dennis Nedry's Barbasol can.

Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park is one of the most iconic films of all time, featuring a ragtag group of lovable outsiders trying to survive an island overrun with dinosaurs. The film captured the imagination of critics and audiences alike and created a legacy of heartfelt, pulse-pounding dinosaur action, with the Jurassic franchise still going strong thanks to the widespread success of the Jurassic World films. However, despite all of this, there is still one plot point from the first film that was never followed up and remains a loose end to this day: Dennis Nedry's Barbasol can.

Dennis Nedry is the slovenly, self-centered head programmer of Jurassic Park. Early in the first film, Nedry makes a deal with the genetics company Biosyn to smuggle several embryos off the island in exchange for a large payment. He meets with Biosyn agent Lewis Dodgson, who provides him with a specialized shaving cream can that is meant to contain and refrigerate the stolen embryos.

As fans of Jurassic Park know, Dennis Nedry's plan ultimately unleashes total chaos throughout the park. He turns off the island's security systems and collects the embryos from cold storage but gets in a car accident on the way to meet with his contact. Nedry tries to extricate his car from the muddy hill it is stuck on, but he is attacked and killed by a Dilophosaur, with the can of embryos being washed away and buried in mud. Nedry's death means no one is around to turn the security systems back on, unleashing the dinosaurs onto the island.

Strangely enough, this is the last time that the Barbasol can has appeared in Jurassic Park lore. While it has appeared in spin-off video games and merchandise, the can has never even been mentioned in canon material since the original film's release. Jurassic World's marketing campaign even included a Barbasol collaboration that released a teaser seemingly hinting at the can's return, but that never came to pass.

Despite a large amount of fan interest in the embryo can's fate, Jurassic Park's screenwriter David Koepp has stated that neither he nor Spielberg had any plans to do anything with it beyond the first film. This makes sense, considering the fact that the can's refrigeration was stated to stop working after 36 hours, rendering its contents useless to anyone who could potentially discover it after the first film's events. Interestingly, screenwriter John Sayles utilized the can as a plot device in his original script for a fourth Jurassic Park movie, but Spielberg ended up rejecting it.

Fortunately for fans, there may be one final twist in store involving the Barbasol can, as actor Campbell Scott has been cast as Lewis Dodgson in Jurassic World: Dominion. Dodgson has reportedly risen up the ranks and become the head of Biosyn in the years since the first film and considering he was the one who originally provided Nedry with the can, it's possible that it may have played some role in his promotion. It stands to reason that Dodgson could have gone back to Isla Nublar shortly after the events of the film to retrieve it, allowing Biosyn to secretly create their own dinosaurs. So, no matter what happens in the Jurassic World trilogy's epic conclusion, there's a good chance that fans will finally get some answers to one of the franchise's longest-running questions.

Source: www.cbr.com/

Berthasaura leopoldinae: New Ceratosaur Species Unearthed in Brazil

Saturday, November 20, 2021

Life reconstruction of Berthasaura leopoldinae. Image credit: de Souza et al., doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-01312-4.

A new genus and species of toothless noasaurid ceratosaur has been identified from an exceptionally complete skeleton found in southern Brazil.

The newly-identified dinosaur species lived in what is now Brazil during the Early Cretaceous period, between 125 and 100 million years ago.

Named Berthasaura leopoldinae, it had an estimated body length of 1 m (3.3 feet) and might never have had teeth.

The ancient creature might have been herbivorous or had, at least, omnivorous dietary preferences.

Berthasaura leopoldinae is the first toothless non-avian theropod known from Brazil,” said senior author Dr. Alexander Kellner, a paleontologist at the Museu Nacional/Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, and his colleagues.

Berthasaura leopoldinae belongs to Noasauridae, a diverse family of Cretaceous theropod dinosaurs from the group Ceratosauria.

“Ceratosauria represents one of the most widespread and diverse clade of extinct theropods,” the paleontologists said.

“Currently, three main lineages are recognized within Ceratosauria: CeratosauridaeAbelisauridae and Noasauridae.”

“In terms of morphology, mid- to large-sized members of the Abelisauridae and Ceratosauridae are relatively better-known than the gracile small-bodied noasaurids,” they said.

“Most noasaurids consist primarily of fragmentary specimens, with few exceptionally well-preserved taxa restricted to the Malagasy species Masiakasaurus knopfleri, the Tanzanian Elaphrosaurus bambergi, and Limusaurus inextricabilis from China.”

The well-preserved skeleton of Berthasaura leopoldinae was found at a paleontological site named Cemitério dos Pterossauros Quarry in Brazil’s Paraná state.

“The Cemitério dos Pterossauros Quarry is a very interesting locality that became famous for being the first pterosaur bone-bed from Brazil, showing two quite distinct species,” the researchers said.

“Although the presence of dinosaurs was known right from the beginning of the studies concerning the specimens from this site, the first dinosaur formally described was Vespersaurus paranaensis based on several isolated or partially associated elements.”

Holotype of Berthasaura leopoldinae. Image credit: de Souza et al., doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-01312-4.

Berthasaura leopoldinae represents the most complete known noasaurid species from Brazil.

“It also represents the most complete non-avian theropod from the Brazilian Cretaceous and preserves the most complete noasaurid axial series known so far,” the scientists said.

“Moreover, the new taxon exhibits many novel osteological features, uncommon in non-avian theropods, and unprecedented even among South American ceratosaurs.”

“These include not only toothless jaws but also a premaxilla with cutting occlusal edge, and a slightly downturned rostral tip.”

“This indicate that Berthasaura leopoldinae unlikely had the same diet as other ceratosaurs, most being regarded as carnivorous.”

“In summary, Berthasaura leopoldinae is a nearly complete and well-preserved noasaurid that possesses unique anatomical features among ceratosaurs, particularly the edentulous rostrum,” they added.

“In addition, it comprises the second report of toothlessness among non-coelurosaurian theropods, alongside the Chinese noasaurid Limusaurus inextricabilis.”

Berthasaura leopoldinae reveals that small-body and divergence in feeding habits may have occurred together across the earlier noasaurid evolutionary history.”

paper on the findings was published in the journal Scientific Reports.

_____

G.A. de Souza et al. 2021. The first edentulous ceratosaur from South America. Sci Rep 11, 22281; doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-01312-4

Source: www.sci-news.com/

8 Easter Eggs Only True Fans Caught In Jurassic World Evolution 2

Friday, November 19, 2021

There are some great easter eggs to be found throughout Jurassic World Evolution 2.

Jurassic World Evolution 2, the sequel to the 2018 prehistoric park sim, is making the rounds. While not everything is perfect, it has thus far engrossed players with its deeper gameplay and the enduring novelty of bringing dinosaurs back to life for tourists' entertainment.

Of course, that ludicrous premise spawned a prolific franchise years ago. Five entries have been released to worldwide commercial success, and a sixth one is well on the way. As is the case with any such series, the creators have racked up a ton of iconic imagery and memorable lines which fans know like the back of their hands. Jurassic World Evolution 2 alludes to many of those through Easter Eggs. Some of these are buried deep, but it won't take devotees long to dig them up.

8 - Attenborosaurus

This marine carnivore's name sounds somewhat different than most. That's because it's co-opted from a person's name. Specifically, it was dubbed in honor of David Attenborough, the famed nature documentarian. However, the animal carries even further significance to this franchise.

David Attenborough is the brother of Richard Attenborough, the actor/director who played Jurassic Park creator John Hammond in the films. Yes, this underwater reptile shares a name with two prominent figures, both of whom are associated with filmic achievement and the animal kingdom. This particular animal probably doesn't understand the importance, but fans assuredly do.

7 - Cearadactylus

The Cearadactylus might seem like just another pterosaur at first, but it actually comes directly from the Michael Crichton novel. In introducing his park, Hammond mentions having several specimens ready to go. The Cearadactylus is among these, but it's curiously absent in the movie. Book details get lost in adaptation all the time, and Jurassic Park cut quite a few things. Better late than never, though.

This flying reptile is now back in the park for players to admire. The catch is that you can't access it when using the original Jurassic Park aesthetic. It's nonsensical and ironic, but a restricted presence is better than no presence at all. Fans and dinosaur experts will get the inclusion regardless.

6 - In The Beginning, There Was The Velociraptor

This might simply be a coincidence, but it's worth mentioning nonetheless. An offhand bit of narration reveals that the Velociraptor was the first dinosaur that Hammond and Dr. Wu engineered.

Michael Crichton's seminal novel says the same thing. It even involves the same two characters. Whether or not this was an intentional callback is anyone's guess. Then again, the raptor was the first dinosaur that audiences saw in the Jurassic Park movie, so perhaps this line carries more weight than meets the eye.

5 - Mr. DNA

Many things changed between Jurassic Park and Jurassic World, but this little guy stuck around. In the first film, Hammond plays a video presentation to explain the concept of cloning to all the folks back home. Hosting this segment is a talking strand of DNA aptly named, "Mr. DNA." He fulfills the same function in the newer park, as he briefly appears as an instructional hologram for guests in the fourth film.

Jurassic World Evolution 2 keeps that trend going. As the opening cutscenes get fans up to speed, Mr. DNA zips across the screen. He helped introduce the premise in the original classic; it makes sense that he does the same here.

4 - T-Rex Field Guide To Jeep Destruction

The game's marketing showcased this visual gem. Leading up to release, Frontier put out field guide videos for their available creatures. They're basically narration played over alpha game footage. The Tyrannosaurus rex entry might look familiar, though.

One of the clips features a pair of them stalking a jeep. They ominously come up on either side of it before the scene ends. This is exactly the same way they ambushed Eddie's vehicle in The Lost World; it's even shot in a similar manner. Let's hope this poor driver doesn't suffer the same grisly fate.

3 - Spinosaurus Phone Home

Now, this one is downright weird. In Jurassic Park III, Paul Kirby loans his satellite phone to their plane's pilot. The Spinosaurus swiftly swallows said pilot, but the survivors later hear the phone's ringtone. They turn around to see their saurian pursuer standing behind them. So much for the element of surprise.

Players focusing on this specific Spinosaurus on Isla Sorna will hear that familiar jingle. Putting aside the fact that it's still functional after all this time, the phone "left the premises" following the animal's digestion. In short, the dinosaur shouldn't be ringing, but at least it's a handy way to ID him.

2 - Parasailing Gone Wrong

Another curious remnant from the third film, this parasail has seen some action. First, the Kirbys' son used it to glide through the air and land on the island. Alan Grant's friend, Billy, later salvaged the sail and wielded it during the thrilling Pteranodon chase. Following that logic, it should still be in the super-sized birdcage.

Instead, it's simply caught in the trees of Site B. The developers could have stashed it in one of the aviaries, but it might not have been as visible to the naked eye. Plus, it was tangled in the foliage earlier in the film. Perhaps that moment was the subject of this homage. Regardless, it's an unexpected reminder of a silly series entry.

1 - Chaos Theory

This mode presented what-if scenarios based on each film. Naturally, it's peppered with iconography, characters, and even plot beats from those films. The visitor centor from the original classic and the San Diego amphitheater from The Lost World are just a couple of examples. From this perspective, Chaos Theory can be considered one, giant Easter Egg.

It's designed to harken back to the past, enticing fans to dive in and experience those warm, nostalgic feelings ingrained in the series. Even the name is a tongue-in-cheek reference. Though it's a real scientific field, chaos theory was a prominent talking point for popular character Ian Malcolm. Considering he's pretty high on himself, the eccentric cynic would probably appreciate the tribute.

Source: https://gamerant.com/

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