Have you ever heard of Jurassic Park? Jurassic Park is a movie about a theme park of cloned dinosaurs. There are many different dinosaurs shown in the movie. Though it being made in 1993, along with it being a work of fiction, has caused inaccuracies in its portrayal of dinosaurs. Jurassic Park’s portrayal of dinosaurs is blatantly inaccurate because of the shrink wrapping and mischaracterization of dinosaurs.
Firstly, Jurassic Park’s portrayal of dinosaurs is blatantly inaccurate because of the shrink wrapping. What is shrink wrapping through? Darren Naish from Scientific American describes shrink wrapping as “applying the minimal amount of soft tissue to a reconstruction”. This means that most of the dinosaurs shown in Jurassic Park lack the muscles they actually had in real life.
Next, Jurassic Park’s portrayal of dinosaurs is blatantly inaccurate because of the mischaracterization of the dinosaurs. Raptors, for example, are actually a lot smaller than shown in the movie. As Creative-beast says, “Real Velociraptors were around half a meter tall, making them closer in size to a large dog or wolf than a human adult.”
Some people believe that Jurassic Park is accurate because the creators consulted experts. While this is true, Charles Raymonde from Screen Rants says “Many of the inaccuracies in the dinosaur designs can be attributed to the limited knowledge scientists had about certain species at the time.” Science has evolved, and many ideas on dinosaurs have been improved or replaced. We’ve learnt more about dinosaurs since the creation of Jurassic Park.
In conclusion, Jurassic Park’s portrayal of dinosaurs is inaccurate because of the shrink wrapping and mischaracterization of dinosaurs. While Jurassic Park may be a good movie, it does show how little information we had on dinosaurs when it was made. It has also caused misinformation on dinosaurs to be spread.
Naish, Darren. Dinosaurs and the Anti-Shrink-Wrapping Revolution. Scientific American, May 8. 2017, https://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/tetrapod-zoology/dinosaurs-and-the-anti-shrink-wrapping-revolution/. Accessed 16 January 2025.
3 Things the Jurassic Park Series Gets Wrong About Raptor. Creative-Beast, July 11. 2023, https://creative-beast.com/3-things-the-jurassic-park-series-gets-wrong-about-raptors/#:~:text=They%20Were%20Human%2DSized&text=As%20interesting%20as%20this%20is,still%20be%20a%20terrifying%20encounter. Accessed 16 January 2025
Raymond, Charles. 9 Jurassic Park Dinosaurs That Were Wildly Inaccurate Compared To Real Life. Screen Rants, January 12. 2024, https://screenrant.com/jurassic-park-most-inaccurate-dinosaurs-real-life/. Accessed 23 January 2025.
