Back in the Jurassic LORE FACT #1 - Another Time, Another Place
Back in the Jurassic takes place in a world much different from the real world. However, the specific science facts we explain in our comics are true for both!
Some of the major differences in the BITJ canon include
Archosaurs happened to evolve very advanced syrinxes (avian vocal organs) and intelligence at the start of the triassic
Major reptiles that lived in the mesozoic era (including mosasaurs, ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, etc) developed their own intelligence and vocal organs as well in a case of convergent evolution
Animals were very brightly colored back in the mesozoic and happened to follow a color scheme depending on their time period
Modern avian descendants of the mesozoic dinosurs have actually retained their intelligence and have a secret society in the mammal dominant era. Human conspiracy theorists have caught onto what they're hiding, but the general public remains unaware
Modern human paleontologists are puzzled by ancient relics of what appears to be a mesozoic civilization
Back in the Jurassic LORE FACT #2 - Oh, the Taxonomy!
In the Back in the Jurassic world, dinosaurs came up with their own genus and species names long before mammals dominated the world!
But how did they come up with these names? And why do most of them end with "-saurus" when they're not lizards??
It all started long ago in the triassic. Dinosaurian knowledge was only just beginning to blossom and the relatively primitive dinosaurs of the time thought they came from a pantheon of lizard-like dragon gods. The king of the pantheon was named "Sauria," and so much like humans naming planets after Greek deities, the archosaurs started including these ancient mythological deities in their scientific names even long after the religion became simply mythology.
Beyond that, the genus and species got their names from their appearance, location, culture, notable (early) members of the species, or accomplishments of said members.
Some examples include...
Barapasaurus tagorei was named from the sauropods' stunning long legs and a famous early barapasaurus poet named Tagore (IRL, the species was named after Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore)
Velociraptor mongoliensis got its name from the most famous early velociraptors being passionate olympic runners and their early ancestors being dromaosaurian desert nomads that simply called themselves "the mongols" long before humans who occupied the same area would also call themselves that (IRL, their name literally means "swift thief from Mongolia" after their thin build, carnivorous diet, and country of origin)
Tyrannosaurus rex was named after "King Rex," a wrestler (with a very redundant name) that rose in popularity very fast from his unprecedented level of raw strength and the use of royal themes for his brand (IRL, the "tyrant lizard king" simply got its name from its large size and assumed dominance of the cretaceous food chain)
And so on. However, much like IRL modern taxonomy, there is debate in what actually counts as a different species or even genus in the mesozoic world. Groups that wish to be their own independent genus are sometimes only granted a different species name while other groups that are used to sticking together are informed that they are now suddenly considered two different species.
An example of the former would be Dyno's species rhodiensis. They were originally considered a species of Coelophysis, making them Coelophysis rhodesiensis. However, Coelophysis as a genus doesn't exactly have the sophisticated reputation that the species wants. So they insist that they're actually their own species and genus: Megapnosaurus rhodesiensis.
Whether their claim is valid or not has been debated ever since.
