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‘Jurassic Park’ Dinosaurs Inacurate, Out-Of-Date, Experts Assert

By Dustin Wicksell
Published on: 11:01 PST, Nov 26, 2014

The newest trailer for Jurassic World promises fans that the park is indeed open, yet the dinosaurs that populate Isla Nublar have stoked the ire of some experts, who assert that the prehistoric creatures are out of step with advances in paleontology.

As the Inquisitr has previously noted, the full trailer for Jurassic World was released on Tuesday. The clip has since been viewed over 14 million times, revealing a healthy interest in the Jurassic Park franchise, which has lain dormant since the 2001 release of Jurassic Park III. As National Geographic notes, however, not all who viewed the trailer came away thrilled.

“The original movies brought the dinosaur research of the 1980s to 1990s viewers,” paleontologist Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. said.

“And the latest one seems to bring the dinosaur research of the 1980s to the 2010s viewers.”

Holtz, of the University of Maryland in College Park, also noted that while scientists realize that Jurassic World is only a movie, it nonetheless carries a cachet that it borrows from science in a different manner. Darren Naish, a zoologist at the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom, is inclined to agree.

“I’m just disappointed — as are many other scientists and researchers — that they’ve deliberately chosen to portray ‘old school’ dinosaurs designed to mimic those of the original Jurassic Park,” he said.

Chief among the complaints is the fact that the Jurassic Park series depicts dinosaurs without any kind of plumage. Researchers have learned since the 1993 release of Jurassic Park that feathers of varying sizes adorned many dinosaurs, dating back to the earliest part of their evolution. In addition, the velociraptors and mosasaur depicted in the Jurassic World trailer are too large in relation to their surroundings, and exhibit factual inaccuracies. The raptors hold their hands in a manner that is considered outdated, while the mosasaur sports a since-disproved frill on its body.

As Business Insider details, the computer animation of the dinosaurs in the original Jurassic Park film was labor and computationally intensive, taking an entire year to animate just four minutes of footage. While early reports suggested that Jurassic World would return to the practical effects that featured heavily in the first film, representing 10 minutes of dinosaur footage in contrast to the four minutes of CGI, the trailer depicted numerous animated scenes.

While paleontologists noted the inaccuracies, Holtz observed that some depictions showed remarkable attention to detail in other areas, particularly the mosasaur’s teeth. Nearly all of the paleontologists also agreed that they will be seeing the latest installment in the Jurassic Park franchise when it hits theaters next spring.

[Image: YouTube via Entertainment Weekly]

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