The trailer for the new film in the saga that began with Jurassic Park, which is titled Jurassic World Dominion , has just been released. Since 1993, this saga has been responsible for the fact that dinosaurs, and the science of paleontology, have been so fashionable. And they have even had a strong effect on the origin of scientific careers. Since then, the knowledge that we have in the paleontological community about these animals has changed a lot. Despite this, many of the depictions of dinosaurs and extinct animals in this popular saga were still stuck in the 1990s. With this trailer, which is quite a declaration of intent, the saga finally catches up.
Within the cinematographic canon of the saga, an explanation was given that the appearance of many fictionally cloned dinosaurs in this park remained the same, as is the case of the absence of feathers in dinosaurs that we know today that they were completely feathered. The fact that they are transgenic clones, with genes from other animals, made them non-rigorous creations with respect to the animals that lived millions of years ago. But at the end of the latest installment, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom , directed by our homeland director JA Bayona , all possibilities were opened: the DNA of these animals, and some living dinosaurs, were no longer the exclusive property of the bioengineering company InGen, remaining in the hands of many more companies.
In the newly released trailer we see many dinosaurs roam free around the world. Some are old acquaintances, and therefore maintain their appearance from previous installments. But others are new and, according to their appearance, they present a purer DNA.
Tyrannosaurus
It is the favorite of many and emblem of the saga. It is a dinosaur from the theropod group (a group that includes all carnivorous dinosaurs) that lived at the end of the Cretaceous in North America. It reached 13 meters in length and had one of the strongest jaws in the entire animal kingdom . Due to its great robustness and weight, there is debate about whether this dinosaur, being fully adult, would be a hunter or a scavenger. Thanks to the discovery of his relatives in deposits of exceptional conservation, we discovered that his family had protofeathers , primitive feathers with the appearance of a simple filament. The tyrannosaurus that we see in the trailer is the same one that we met in Jurassic Park, and that we saw again in Jurassic World and The Fallen Kingdom, as well as in the animated series Cretaceous Camp. Being one of the clones of his first generation, his appearance is still the classic scaly one. However, in the Prologue released weeks ago we were able to see a Tyrannosaurus specimen in its natural environment from the end of the Cretaceous, and observe its protofeathers.
Velociraptor
Another public favorite, a theropod closely related to birds , barely half a meter tall and 1.80 m long. Thanks to the fossil record of this animal and its very close relatives – the family we call dromaeosaurs – we know that they were completely covered in feathers . However, the velociraptors we see in the trailer are large and scaly. The main one, Blue, we met in Jurassic World, and therefore maintains its genetically modified appearance. The other small velociraptor that appears is his son, and maintains the same appearance. Since Blue must be the only one left of her kind, this child of hers must have been born by parthenogenesis , a process of asexual reproduction from unfertilized ova that occurs frequently in many invertebrates, fish, amphibians, and reptiles. And some cases have even been described in birds.
Giganotosaurus
A gigantic carnivorous dinosaur newcomer to the saga. It is a theropod of the group of carcharodontosaurs , it lived in the middle of the Cretaceous in South America, and it is considered that it was at least the same size as the tyrannosaurus, and even larger. Carcharodontosaurs are not as closely related to birds as, say, tyrannosaurs. Hence, its representation is usually scaly, except for the protofeathers on the forearms that Concavenator, a relative of his found in Cuenca, may have had.
Atrociraptor
Another “dromi”, theropod in the same family as Velociraptor , which lived in the late Cretaceous in what is now Canada. It is estimated to be similar in size to Velociraptor , and would also be fully feathered. The raptors featured in the trailer are new to the series, yet they feature the large, scaly design, so this will need to be justified script-wise. Perhaps a new group of old school raptors from a rival company, in the style of the “raptor squad” we met in Jurassic World?
Pyroraptor
There are no two without three, right? The dromaeosaur family had never been so represented in the saga. Pyroraptor is also one of them and lived in the late Cretaceous in what is now southeastern France. Its name alludes to the fact that its fossils were discovered after a forest fire that exposed the site. In this case, he is represented fully feathered , showing that a more rigorous dinosaur can work well on screen.
Therizinosaurus
Another new dinosaur for the saga and another theropod closely related to birds, but from another family. Therizinosaurs had very different proportions, with long arms and mouths ending in a beak. They lived in what is now Asia in the late Cretaceous, and it has been suggested that, although they were theropods, they might have had a rather omnivorous diet due to their beak. His most notable feature is the extremely long claws on his hands . And as not too distant relatives of birds and “dromis”, they were fully feathered . And so they appear in the trailer.
Quetzalcoatlus
It is not a dinosaur, but a flying reptile from the pterosaur group, like the Pteranodon and Dimorphodon that we saw earlier in the saga. This species is a newcomer to the franchise. It receives its name in honor of the god Quetzalcoatl of Aztec mythology , it lived at the end of the Cretaceous in North America, and it is among the largest species of pterosaurs that existed. It is striking that it is also covered with protofeathers . And it is that for decades we have evidence that pterosaurs had a kind of filaments that we usually call “ pycnofibers ”. Thanks to the discovery of exceptionally preserved fossils of pterosaurs in which we could see in detail the structure of these pycnofibres, it has been proposed that they are homologous to the protofeathers of dinosaurs.
Along with these dinosaurs and other extinct fauna mentioned, other regular ones appear. This is the case of Parasaurolophus (duck-billed dinosaurs with tubular crests), Apatosaurus (the main sauropod dinosaur – with a long neck – in the latest installments), Allosaurus (a very abundant theropod during the Jurassic period that we already saw in The Fallen Kingdom and in the short film Battle at Big Rock ), Nasutoceratops (a dinosaur with horns and chalk, a close relative of Triceratops, whom we also met in Battle at Big Rock), Dilophosaurus (the theropod with a double crest and whose cloned version spit poison, to which we haven’t seen since Jurassic Park) and Mosasaurus (a marine reptile related to monitor lizards and snakes). And as for its human protagonists, it’s worth noting the return of the original trio of scientists: paleontologists Ellie Sattler and Alan Grant , and mathematician Ian Malcolm .
When the film was still in its pre-production phase, they announced that paleontologist Stephen Brusatte was joining the team as scientific advisor, thus taking over from Jack Horner who had been technical advisor since the first film in 1993. Betting on a paleontologist from the new generations and actively involved in scientific dissemination made it clear that this installment intended to be “relevant” again in terms of its representation of dinosaurs, as Jurassic Park was at the time. Steve himself said it on his social networks, “we are going to have rigorous dinosaurs” . And so it has been, together with the classic-looking dinosaurs of the film canon, we are going to have much more realistic and rigorous representations with what we know today of these fascinating animals that dominated the Earth millions of years ago.
References:
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Xu, X.; Norell, M.A. 2006. Non-Avian dinosaur fossils from the Lower Cretaceous Jehol Group of western Liaoning, China. Geological Journal, 41 (3–4): 419-437.
Turner, A. et al. 2007. Feather quill knobs in the dinosaur Velociraptor. Science, doi:10.1126/science.1145076.
Currie, P. J.; Varricchio, D.J. 2004. A new dromaeosaurid from the Horseshoe Canyon Formation (Upper Cretaceous) of Alberta, Canada. In: Feathered Dragons. Indiana University Press.
Allain, R.; Taquet, P. 2000. A new genus of Dromaeosauridae (Dinosauria, Theropoda) from the Upper Cretaceous of France. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 20: 404-407.
Benton, M. J. et al. 2019. Pterosaur integumentary structures with complex feather-like branching. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 3 (1): 24–30.
