JURASSIC WORLD

When we hear the words 'Jurassic World', we remember the nostalgia that the first film of the series, 'Jurassic Park' conveyed to us. The ingenious storyline, the fast paced thrill, the mesmerizing visual effects and the captivating screen presence, and moreover, the effective use of animation and computer graphics rendered it into one of the most iconic movies of all time. There is something in fictional adventures that manages to enthrall us and keep our eyes glued to the screen. And when the story told is life- like and unique, we find ourselves getting emotionally and mentally attached to the characters and their journeys throughout the plot. Jurassic World is a 2015 release and it is the fourth installment in the Jurassic Park film series directed by Colin Trevorrow. It is said to be the highest grossing film worldwide in its opening weekend with a whooping 500 million dollars of collection in the first weekend alone. The enormous collection speaks of the success of the plot, and that of the unique fictional world of the fully functional dinosaur theme park 'Jurassic Park' by InGen on Isla Nublar.

Paleontologists and other dinosaur buffs would be knowing that the term 'Jurassic' technically refers to the geological period which extended from the end of the Triassic period to the beginning of the Cretaceous period. The Jurassic period actually constitutes the middle of the Mesozoic Era, which is also considered to be the 'Age of Reptiles'. An interesting fact is that despite the title of this film series referencing the Jurassic period, most of the dinosaurs featured in them did not exist until the Cretaceous period. In the first installment of the series, we come across various species of dinosaurs like the Tyrannosaurus Rex, Velociraptor, Dilophosaurus, Brachiosaurus, Triceratops, Gallimimus, Parasaurolophus and Ichthyornis, with the last two species appearing in the background alone. None of these species existed until the Cretaceous period, except Brachiosaurus and Dilophosaurus, both of which lived in the Jurassic period. In the movie 'Jurassic World', we come across a new fictional species of dinosaurs called the Indominus Rex. The plot states that InGen's geneticists create a new genetically modified dinosaur which they name as Indominus Rex. These dinosaurs have the genetic makeup of the DNA of several predatory dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus, Velociraptor, Carnotaurus, Giganotosaurus, Majungasaurus, and Rugops, as well as animals such as cuttlefish and an unknown type of tree frog. This is a good storyline for a fiction, but however people need to recognize that this isn't something that is scientifically accurate or practically possible. The various species mentioned above originally did have a lot of interesting features and practices that were found mixed up in the fictional genetically modified dinosaurs. If you browse through our website, you will find the individual characteristics of these species and the way they had lived their lives during the Mesozoic Era. Dinosaur enthusiasts would find pleasure with the interesting diversity and yet unique similarities that were persistent on the predatory species of the dinosaurs.

Recently, some fossils were found in North America, China and Germany have brought a whole new set of features of the dinosaurs into light. The fossils that were discovered have shown that many of the fierce species including the Tyrannosaurus Rex and Velociraptors were in fact fluffy and possibly even brightly-colored as opposed to scaly skinned and dull colored. The discovery opened up to the theory that those species were actually covered with feathers or proto-feathers. There was also a notable difference in the way Velociraptors actually held their front limbs, from the way it was thought to be earlier. Our website had mentioned about these trending new discoveries that had changed the perception of dinosaurs almost overnight. The discovery of them being feathered not only affects the perception of the physical structure of the dinosaurs, but also brings into light a whole set of questions.These interesting discoveries had brought a lot of controversies, regarding the depiction of the dinosaurs in the latest movie 'Jurassic World', which was made after those discoveries.

Renowned paleontologists took to the social media to express their disappointment and labeled the 'Jurassic World' to be a 'dumb monster movie', as it failed to include the new discoveries about these creatures. There was a faux review in the website of the film, which actually speculated that that the use of amphibian DNA to fill the gaps in the dinosaur DNA prevented the dinosaurs from growing feathers. The movie justified this controversy by having a character state that makes the use of tree frog DNA to fill the gaps, had actually caused the genetically modified dinosaurs to look very different than they should. If you browse through our website, you can find a lot of pictures for almost each species of the dinosaurs that had existed. Such pictures show the traditional perception of the dinosaurs as having scaly leathered skin and a fierce face. The new discoveries now state them to have had a feathered body instead of a scaly body.

However, the original 'Jurassic Park' movie made in 1993 was critically acclaimed to have depicted dinosaurs very accurately and in line with the science of the time, based on current knowledge of that period. The director, Colin Trevorrow, did acknowledge the recent discoveries and the developments in science, but refused to include them in his movie stating that it was a science- fiction movie and not a documentary. The possible reason for this decision could be to maintain the traditional appearance of dinosaurs as scaly fearsome beasts. Paleontologists continue to state that the perception of dinosaurs as aggressive, roaring scaly monsters has changed with the light of the new discoveries, and they are now believed to have been active, social, bird-like animals with dynamic bodies.

Science is an ever advancing, ever changing field which brings into light, a lot of new discoveries and inventions every day. The recent changes may not have been included in the film but have been widely acknowledged and have created a stir among the dinosaur enthusiasts. Browse through our website to come across a lot of such new discoveries and the characteristic features of almost every kind of dinosaurs known to have existed.