Tyrannosaurus Rex
Tyrannosaurus Rex or the T-Rex is a carnivore and the first apex predator of the Jurassic Park series.
The name Tyrannosaurus Rex meant “King of the terrible lizards” as it was one of the largest carnivorous dinosaurs when it was first discovered. Tyrannosaurus Rex were about 12 feet which is about 3.5 meters tall and are expected to weigh about 7 tons.
Tyrannosaurus Rex was a carnivore and presumed to reach up to 32km/h or 20mile per hour speed which it would utilize to hunt prey.
Unlike a complete hunter featured in the Jurassic Park movie, scientists believe that T-Rex was a scavenger and a hunter which suggests that the tyrannosaurus rex would also feed on the leftovers of dead animals while it would also hunt its own prey as well.
John Hammond and INGEN has bred the Tyrannosaurus Rex as its main attraction for Jurassic Park. The Tyrannosaurus Rex in the first Jurassic Park movie is the same individual that appears in the T-Rex Kingdom of the first Jurassic World movie which was often referred as ‘Rexy’ to distinguish from other T-Rexs that INGEN has created.
Velociraptor
The Velociraptor means ‘swift teeth’ and they were a carnivore but only weighted about 33 pounds about 15kgs and height is about only 1.6 feet which is about 0.5 meters.
Thus the real velociraptor is only the size of a turkey. The velociraptor in Jurassic Park is more likely the dinosaur Deinonychus whose name means “Terrible Claw” which was most emphasized throughout the whole series. Deinonychus height would be about 6 feet which is about 1.8 meters and it would weigh up to 100kgs (220 pounds).
Although the velociraptors in the Jurassic Park and Jurassic World series would cooperate in groups and hunt in packs, there isn’t much solid evidence of the Deinonychus would hunt in packs.
Also the velociraptors were depicted as cunning intelligent dinosaurs during the whole Jurassic Park and Jurassic World series, however there isn’t much information to support the intelligence of velociraptors nor the Deinonychus.
Studies suggest that velociraptors and similar kinds has a higher Encephalization quotient (EQ) or encephalization level (EL), compared with other dinosaurs. Encephalization quotient (EQ) is a factor that measures the relative brain size in terms of the body mass.
Thus, the real-life velociraptors weren’t large, smart or so deadly as they were depicted in Jurassic Park. Velociraptors could sprint up to 50 miles per hour which is about 83km/h which does show they are really fast.
Velociraptor of the Jurassic Park series
The velociraptor featured in the Jurassic Park series is almost completely different from the real-life velociraptors and these seem to be based on the Deinonychus rather than an actual velociraptor.
Different velociraptors are featured throughout the series and the Jurassic Park series made fictional variations. The Jurassic Park franchise explains the Velociraptors in Jurassic Park 1 is a low-land velociraptor.
These would feature a wolf-pack like behavior and depicted more as silent assassin like animals without much vocal communication.
In Jurassic Park 2, the Lost world, similar low-land velociraptors were featured. However in Jurassic Park 3, a different type of velociraptors are introduced called high-land velociraptors where there is a distinctive difference between the male and female velociraptors and other different features explained as an evolutionary difference.
The Highland Velociraptors in Jurassic Park 3 are described much intelligent and cooperative hunters, while the males would have a quill and crest in red and the females had a more distinctive camouflage pattern. Possibly, because in Jurassic Park 1 and 2, only female velociraptors existed which may explain the difference(All the dinosaurs were initially genetically engineered to be female only)
Brachiosaurus
The dinosaur with a long neck and the first dinosaur that was featured in Jurassic Park was called a Barchiosaurus. Brachiosaurus or Brachiosaurus Altithorax meant ‘Arm Lizard’ as it had a larger front foot than its posterior legs.
The Brachiosaurus was classified as a sauropod which was a classification of dinosaurs with four legs that mainly fed on grass, thus brachiosaurus were herbivores.
Unlike other sauropods which were usually oriented towards the ground, the front posture of the brachiosaurus was headed upwards which scientists believed that the brachiosaurus would use their larger front legs to lean on trees and feed on the higher tops of vegetation.
Brachiosaurus would weight about 29tons which is almost the weight of an armored vehicle while it would be about 13 meters which is about 42 feet.
Fossil evidence suggest that Brachiosaurus would often form herds which is featured in Jurassic Park as the brachiosaurus would flock together in herds. While Dr. Grant, Lex and Tim Murphy took shelter in a tree, they’ve encountered a brachiosaurus that was grazing on the tree they were on and sneezed on them.
Dilophosaurus
The dinosaur that spat venom and assaulted Dennis Nedry was a Dilophosaurus. The name Dilophosaurus meant ‘double crested lizards’ as it had a crest that spread aside its head.
Although the Dilophosaurus in Jurassic Park was featured with a frill that it would use to threaten its prey like a frilled lizard, there isn’t any solid evidence to support such physique of the Dilophosaurus.
Also, there is no evidence to support that the Dilophosaurus could spit venom or any body fluids as well.
Although it was a relatively small carnivore depicted in Jurassic Park, during the early Jurassic period where the Dilophosaurus thrived, the Dilophosaurus was one of the largest carnivores.
The Dilophosaurus in Jurassic Park is about half the size of a fully grown Dilophosaurus possibly as it was a younger individual or it was simply depicted much smaller than it was as there were many imaginary features on the Dilophosaurus such as the venom and the frill.
Possibly this frill and venom could be an unprecedented effect by the addition of DNA to fill up the genome. Fossils of Dilophosaurus suggest that Dilophosaurus would usually live as packs and they would also often hunt in packs as well.
Gallimimus
The ostrich like dinosaurs that were flocking where Dr. Grant, Lex and Tim had to take shelter under a log because the T-Rex has ambushed the flock were Gallimimus. Gallimimus meant “mimic of a chicken” and these were omnivores which means they would feed on both vegetation and other animals.
The Gallimimus didn’t have any teeth and presumably they are expected to have a similar speed with a ostrich and they could speed up to 30 miles per hour which is 48km/hr.
Fossil evidence suggest that the Gallimimus would have feathers and rather than having an arm like feature, they would have had a wing-like arm. However the Gallimimus in Jurassic Park lack feathers on their bodies and lacked the wing-like feature on their arms.
Triceratops
The dinosaur that doctor Ellie Sattler had to get off during the tour to treat as it was poisoned was a triceratops. Triceratops meant three horned head and it the triceratops dinosaur is one o the most common dinosaur fossil discovered.
Many evidence suggest that triceratops would form herds and even protect their juveniles with a unique protection formation when they encounter predators. Triceratops was a herbivore and it would weigh up to 3 tons. The unique three horns of the triceratops makes it easy to identify.
