Jurassic Park Fact

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Fact vs. Fiction in the Movie (Film), Jurassic Park

In Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park, dinosaurs come to life on the big screen for audiences' worldwide. Millions have watched this film, but what number of them have halted to wonder at the truth behind the story? How many have stopped to think whether the dinosaurs are portrayed correctly within a scientific aspect? Unbeknownst to many, there are a number of mistakes in Spielberg's film regarding the dinosaurs, from how they were recreated to their common names.

One prominent flub that is witnessed throughout the duration of the film, besides the fact that most of the dinosaurs are from the cretaceous period, is the fact that it remains impossible to bring dinosaurs …show more content…

Dominican amber mines are scientifically aged at the Miocene and Oligocene epochs (French 1998). These epochs take place later than 65 million years ago, roughly from 38 to 5 million years ago, which in turn means that dinosaurs were most likely not around when this specific amber was formed. Remains of dinosaurs have only been found from the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceuos periods, from 251 to 65 million years …show more content…

These specific dinosaurs are nicknamed "raptors", a name that now refers to the entire family of dinosaurs, not just the velociraptor as indicated in the film. In science before the film, the name "raptor" identified birds of prey. Now it identifies not only velociraptors, but other dinosaurs as well, such as deinonychus, dromaeosaurus, and saurornitholestes. Some of these dinosaurs are not even closely related (Franczak 1996), but due to the use of the raptor nickname, some people now believe that they are. Since the Jurassic Park novel and movies, there have been a few books that have also adopted the use of the nickname when referring to velociraptors. To do that is scientifically incorrect. Another mistake including the "raptors" is the fact that in the film, they resemble a dinosaur called deinonychus more than anything else. It is said, to be precise, to look like deinonychus with an odd shaped head (Franczak

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