Jurassic Park - Fact or Fiction? Raptors

Let's look at the inaccuracies of the Velociraptor, portrayed in the Jurassic Park & Jurassic World films.

I already covered different raptor dinosaur species in great detail in a previous post, so I will only be focusing on the movies briefly. 

If you are interested you can find the post here:

https://gnostika-channel.blogspot.com/2022/01/raptors-modern-prehistoric-predators.html

Let's dig in...

Velociraptor in the Jurassic Park/World Films.

The Velociraptor was too big (rather Utahraptor or Dakotaraptor-sized), and too intelligent.

The breath expelled through the nostrils of one of the Velociraptors fogged the window in the door to the kitchen. This implies both a moistening of inspired air while in the respiratory system as well as a body temperature elevated well above that of the ambient environment, both traits associated with endothermic (warm blooded) animals. But to be fair, there is overwhelming evidence in recent studies that the majority of dinosaurs are closely related to modern birds, and also related to extinct species of synapsids. When it comes to the taxonomy of these dinos, things become complicated.

Velociraptor would not likely jump on a T. rex (as in the visitor center at the end of the movie), any more than a cat might jump on the back of a wolf, for any reason.

During high-excitement moments, the 'raptors' and the T-rex both ripple their tails and lash them, rather like a cat that's highly annoyed. Therapods, however, have rigid fibers reinforcing the vertebrae in the spine to help counter-balance the weight of the animal. This would make tails much too stiff for thrashing. (the reason they did it that way. Hollywood stop-motion dinosaurs have always rippled their tails. It's a tradition that people seem to expect from their dinosaurs).

The 'raptors' snarled several times, and even lifted their lips in a snarl when angry. Theropods didn't have a lot of face muscles and this is actually a very sophisticated movement in a human, taking an extremely complex series of muscle movements that there is no evidence of dromasaurids being able to do.

Deinonychus was the basis for novel canon's Velociraptors and in turn the raptors seen in the films. Jurassic Park novel author Michael Crichton visited John Ostrom, the discoverer of Deinonychus, when doing research for the novel. Ostrom said that Crichton's Velociraptor was based on Deinonychus in "almost every detail" and Crichton had even called him to inform him that he had renamed the Deinonychus in his novel to Velociraptor because he felt it sounded "more dramatic".

Concept art of Mark "Crash" McCreery for Jurassic Park of Deinonychus, 

which would later be renamed to Velociraptor later in the film's production.

Deinonychus was scheduled to appear in Jurassic World: Dominion, but it was replaced by Atrociraptor sometime in 2020.

Promotional material for the Atrociraptors in Jurassic World Dominion
Promotional material for the Atrociraptors in Jurassic World Dominion

It seems like Jurassic World Dominion is giving the Atrociraptor the same treatment as Jurassic Park originally did for the Velociraptor.

Jurassic Park - Jurassic world vs science: Atrociraptor

Another Raptor species that will appear in Jurassic World Dominion is the Pyroraptor.

I am really excited about the visual "bird-like" appearance of this dinosaur, and it seem like this raptor has a likeness closer to the real thing with only a moderate size increase for the film.

Pyroraptor in Jurassic World Dominion

Pyroraptor in Jurassic World Dominion

The Real Raptors:

Velociraptor, (genus Velociraptor), sickle-clawed dinosaur that flourished in central and eastern Asia during the Late Cretaceous Period (99 million to 65 million years ago). 

It is closely related to the North American Deinonychus of the Early Cretaceous in that both reptiles were dromaeosaurs. Both possessed an unusually large claw on each foot, as well as ossified tendon reinforcements in the tail that enabled them to maintain balance while striking and slashing at prey with one foot upraised. 

Artist's re-creation of Velociraptor and (bottom) reconstruction of... Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

V. mongoliensis, showing large wing feathers as evidenced by the discovery of quill knobs

Velociraptor was smaller than Deinonychus, reaching a length of only 1.8 metres (6 feet) and perhaps weighing no more than 45 kg (100 pounds). Velociraptor appears to have been a swift, agile predator of small herbivores.

Atrociraptor (meaning "savage robber") is a genus of saurornitholestine dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian stage) of Alberta, Canada.

Image Credit: Atrociraptor Marshalli by Hamish1512201

https://www.deviantart.com/hamish1512201/art/Atrociraptor-Marshalli-842072048

Pyroraptor (meaning "fire thief") is an extinct genus of paravian dinosaur, probably a dromaeosaurid or unenlagiid, from the Late Cretaceous Ibero-Armorican island, of what is now southern France and northern Spain. It lived during the late Campanian and early Maastrichtian stages, approximately 70.6 million years ago.

Estimated size compared to human & Figured material of Pyroraptor restored as a generalized dromaeosaurid.

https://wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons

So in conclusion, it seems likely that the creators behind the Jurassic Park/World films basically created their own unique versions of the Velociraptors &  Atrociraptors inspired by elements of different raptor dinosaur species.

References, bibliography & further reading:

Dinosaurs: A Visual Encyclopedia by DKPublishing 

https://www.amazon.com/Visual-Encyclopedia-Dinosaurs-DK-Publishing/dp/1405308389

Duncan, J. (2007). The Winston Effect: The art and history of Stan Winston studio. London, UK: Titan Books.

Bennington, J.B. (1996). "Errors in the movie Jurassic Park". American Paleontologist

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-real-dilophosaurus-would-have-eaten-the-jurassic-park-version-for-breakfast/

Hartman, Scott; Mortimer, Mickey; Wahl, William R.; Lomax, Dean R.; Lippincott, Jessica; Lovelace, David M. (2019-07-10). "A new paravian dinosaur from the Late Jurassic of North America supports a late acquisition of avian flight". PeerJ. 7: e7247

https://peerj.com/articles/7247/

https://www.britannica.com/animal/Velociraptor