I knew that Dinosaurs are related closer to modern day Birds more than any other living Animal, but research in the last few years have discovered that many of them had, wait for it, feathers!. In Science Journal (Sep 21, 2007) published that “A new look at some old bones have shown that velociraptor, the dinosaur made famous in the movie Jurassic Park, had feathers. The discovery was made by paleontologists at the American Museum of Natural History”.
DNA, the hereditary material in humans and almost all other organisms, have been found to have a half-life of 521 years, meaning half of the information in a DNA specimen would have decayed in 521 years. Extrapolating this, scientists at Murdoch University’s Ancient DNA lab in Perth have predicted that the maximum any information in a DNA will survive is 6.8 million years. This put’s it impossible to get any DNA bond from Dinosaurs which lived much earlier at over 70 million years before. Having said that, in 2012 Mary Schweitzer, a palaeobiologist at North Carolina State University discovered that iron nano particles present in blood can help in preserving tissues for millions of years.
T-rex has higher number of teeth and using it’s back teeth it can generate 3 times the force of a great white shark, 15 times the force of an African lion.
These are some information my son was sharing in the drive back home from Escape Cinemas after watching Colin Trevorrow directed Jurassic World. Last week when my son asked me to book for this movie I tried to wiggle myself out of watching it, I thought the Jurassic Park franchise had all its worth extracted and there was nothing of interest left. How off-mark I was; The film within 2 weeks of its release has made box office collection of nearly $1 Billion, and the two hour film surpassingly kept me entertained.
Jurassic World (2015)
The story is familiar, the Jurassic Park from two decades back has been rebuilt into a bigger theme park called Jurassic World by millionaire Simon Masran (played by talented Irrfan Khan). The park is managed by Claire Dearing (played from Bryce Dalls Howard known for her SpiderMan3 role as Gwen Stacy and the Racist character in The Help) who has invited her two nephews Zach and Gray for a visit. A former Navy officer Owen Grady (played by Chris Patt) is the park’s raptor trainer & researcher. Scientists of the park have created a new Dinosaur Indominus rex by combining DNA from many different Dinosaurs species and modern day animals like cuttlefish & tree frogs. All is going well, till the Indominus rex escapes from its enclosure and goes rampaging the whole park threatening everyone’s life. From the time Zach appeared on screen, I was trying to recollect his name and where I have seen him before, thanks to Wikipedia I figured out Zach was played by Nick Robinson who appears in the TV show I like Mellissa & Joey.
In Jurassic Park 1 it was the scene where the lawyer character sitting in toilet stool was eaten alive by T-Rex that is remembered still by viewers’, in Jurassic world it may be the scene where the first response team going after Indominus rex finds its sensor abandoned, with blood dripping from above, only to find a waiting Indominus appear from the trees. Also memorable was the climax scene in which T-rex and Indominus fighting, when Mosasaurus suddenly appearing from underwater grabs and killing Indominus for good.
For the question on how Dinosaurs will react to seeing Humans or other mammals, scientists now have better ideas than two decades back when Jurassic Park 1 came. Dr.Edward Simpson of Kutztown University in Pennsylvania believes that Velociraptors could have hunted ancient mammals as preys. This means even if Indominus rex and T-rex will never roam the world again, but if they do, don’t be surprised if they wipe out the human race!