JURASSIC PARK (1993) Dir. Steven Spielberg
I had completely forgotten about this scene even though JP is one of my favorite movies. But watching it now as a person whose primary job is to artificially incubate and hatch bird eggs at a large zoo, I have so many thoughts and questions. Perhaps there is an embryo paleontologist somewhere that could help.
*yes I realize this is a work of fiction with many scientific inaccuracies and that it was made for the excitement of the moment.
1) are eggshells truly more like bird eggs (rigid and calcified) or like reptiles (soft and somewhat pliable)?
2) from this scene it looks like the eggs are more like bird eggs which leads to my next question, shouldnāt the hatching dinosaur have to rotate around to cap the eggshell in order to hatch?
3) related to this, did dinosaurs have an egg tooth to assist in the external pip?
4) if they were turning the eggs during incubation (again, and avian egg trait) why not just put them in an incubator which would heat and rotate the eggs all at once?
5) what was the optimal temperature to incubate those eggs?
6) did the eggs lose weight throughout incubation (bird) or gain weight (reptile)?
7) if they lost weight, did the staff at JP track it? And what was the optimal weight loss parameters for those eggs (most bird eggs lose around 15% mass during incubation)?
8) why did no one wash their hands before touching the eggs? Eggs are porous and bacteria can get inside and infect the developing embryo.
9) why did Hammond interfere with the hatching process? He could have torn a blood vessel or more on that little velociraptor which would potentially kill it
10) shouldnāt the pip to hatch interval have taken a bit longer?
11) were they able to candle the eggs to record embryonic development or were the eggshells too thick?
12) why did they turn the eggs during upright and limit its movement with the robotic hand during the hatch? Most eggs do better when on their side and are allowed to move during this time
RIP Sam Neill, you will be missed ā¤ļø
