Animal Education Podcast

Animal Education 18 - Velociraptor and Dilophosaurus

JJP Season 1 Episode 18

Ok, I forgot to post yesterday. I don't have an excuse. Not that I need one, but yeah. Anyway, we're going to do a 2 in one to make up for that. Also, this is actually a two-in-a-one, not a scam like with the dome heads. This post will focus on two creatures mutilated by Jurassic Park. This is going to be a long one, so strap in. Mutilated is a harsh word as these popular designs of these dinosaurs are very cool but aren't accurate. These dinosaurs are Velociraptor and Dilophosaurus. I won't go into much detail on their overall biology and save that for a rainy day when I run out of ideas or need a break from cranking out themed content. First up is size. Jurassic Park Velociraptor is huge, with around a 5ft. stature and an overall size just larger than a man. In real life, they were turkey-sized. Dilophosaurus has the opposite problem as in the movie; they are the size of a large dog, but in real life, 23ft. long and could weigh 880 lbs. The reason for these crazy sizes, though, is something I will get to at the end. Next up are distinguishable traits. Velociraptors did have toe claws but, in real life, had feathers and probably did not hunt in packs. The pack thing is still debated, but the feather thing is not. Some bones of Velociraptor had places where feathers would grow out of, and we knew this before the movie was made. Really guys. Next up, Dilophosaurus had the head crest but not the frill or poison. These adaptations would not preserve most fossils and are very unlikely anyway. So early, I mentioned that the sizes and some other traits have a reason, which is the original novel. See, in the novel, Deinonychus was used instead of Velociraptor. Deinonychus is about the size of the movie creature and has the right face shape. Velociraptor had a pointed snout, while Deinonychus had the famous rounded snout of the movies. This may be hard to tell from my dinosaur train toy, but the rest of my toys are featherless thanks to Jurassic Park, so y'all are stuck with this. Anyway, the makers of Jurassic Park said that the name Deinonychus, which means Terrible Claw, was not scary, so they just called these Deinonychus Velociraptor, which means fast...thief... Great job, guys, great job. They weren't completely crazy, though, as they would make the movie one Velociraptor antirrhopus. The real one is Velociraptor mongoliensis, the species from Mongolia. Antirrhopus is the second part of Deinonychus' scientific name, so this new name at least references Deinonychus and makes this move creature a fictional species. However, the advising paleontologists said they needed more accurate, so they changed it back to Velociraptor mongoliensis. So, the paleologists made the movie less accurate by making it "more accurate."
Great job guys. A final note for this craziness: the movie keeps these guys from the Deinonychus location in North America, as seen in Dr. Alan Grant's first scene. Velociraptor MONGOLIENSIS is from NORTH AMERICA in Jurassic Park. Anyway, Dilophosaurus is way less annoying. See, in the novel, the individuals encountered were juveniles. In a later comic, a properly sized adult would appear. However, the movie just never specified, so the juveniles just became adults to keep their appearance consistent for fans, or they just forgot, I don't know. Final notes overall. Both Jurassic Park versions of the dinosaurs are shrink-warped. This is discussed in my Andrewsharchus post. The Dilophosaurus shown here is a good Safari mini. The crest is a bit outdated due to a study in 2020, but besides that, it is good. Finally, if you got this far, thanks for reading. 
P.S. I have no idea why you got this is purple.

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