Reminder that we have absolutely no evidence that there wasn’t some member of the dilophosaurus family that was venomous, or that projectile vomited stomach acid to ward off predators(much as many modern day birds do).
Reminder that we have absolutely no evidence that there wasn’t some bulky offshoot of the dromaeosaur family that traded its feathers for lizardlike scales. There is, in fact, some evidence that from an evolutionary standpoint, dinosaurs were able to switch between the two relatively easily.
Reminder that wyverns are fucking real. They’re small and kinda poofy, but I mean, what else are you gonna call a bat-winged theropod?
Reminder that we know less than 1% of the organisms that have ever lived on Earth. Sure, most of those unaccounted for are microorganisms, but even a tiny percentage of animals on the planet is still a metric fuckton.
And most importantly of all, reminder that there is zero shame in indulging fantasy.
Also what a lot of people are missing when it comes to things like JP’s fantasy dilophosaurus: Nature is fickin’ WEIRD. No, we have no proof dilophosaurus specifically had bizarre adaptations like that - but we know for SURE some dinosaurs must have had them. Strange features that don’t show up in the fossil record. JP’s reconstruction of dilophosaurus has like a 99,9% chance of being scientifically inaccurate - but it’s making the reconstructed ecosystem more accurate.
And I want to see more of that.
This is a very good point! It’s also the primary reason for the dilo’s infamous venom in the first place.
The thesis of Jurassic Park, between the book and all the movies, is that life will always throw you a curve ball. There are all sorts of things the animals can and will display, which we have no way of preparing for until we know they’re there. The dilos having venom is specifically cited as one of the first obstacles that they’d failed to consider.
When Spielberg came into the picture, his aim was not to completely 100% portray the prehistoric world, using only what we know was there. It was to make the dinosaurs come to life. Accuracy was secondary to naturalism. And in the natural world, animals have all sorts of bizarre things going for them!
This is actually one of my favorite things about the new JWorld Evolution game. A very small part, mind you, but still… that Deinonychus design they did? That shit is off the chain.
Frontier couldn’t go the scientifically accurate route because, well, Jurassic Park- but they couldn’t make it a classical retro Deinonychus either, because that’d look too much like JP’s version of a Velociraptor. So to make it more of its own thing they went down a route similar to the JP1 Dilophosaurus.
See, even taking into account how much we don’t know about Deinonychus’ appearance, it’s safe to say that the Evolution Deino looks nothing like the real thing. Not just because of the standard JP problems like scaly skin and pronated wrists, but because it’s got this weirdly upright posture, there’s a huge boneless crest on the head that’s unlike anything we know on dromaeosaurs, and its got a deeply inclined, finny looking tail like some sort of overgrown newt. It’s total fantasy, separate from almost everything we know about it.
And it’s great!
The game’s dinopedia makes a point of telling you that Deinonychus originally hailed from much swampier terrain than Velociraptor (which is true!), so to differentiate it they ran wild with that idea. All the made up traits start to come together when you think about it in that context: this is what would happen if the JP raptor were a real animal with a cousin adapted to a semi-aquatic lifestyle. Like a fictional, lizardy equivalent to Halszkaraptor or Austroraptor. It’s no closer to reality than something like the ARK dinosaurs or Godzilla, but it feels that way because it matches its described environment, its fanciful parts are within the realm of improbable-but-technically-not-impossible speculation, and the narrative treats it as an animal rather than a monster. Contrary to what a lot of people (myself included) were afraid, it actually fits perfectly into its world.
As an added bonus it’s just weird enough that dino-crazed children are probably going to ask questions about it, like whether or not it’s real or how anyone could ever think that’s a Deinonychus, and that’ll put them on track for learning about the real animal and other fun science subjects like what does and doesn’t fossilize.
So yeah, inaccurate but naturalistic: not the worst approach for pop culture dinos, especially when you’re dealing with something like Jurassic Park where authenticity is explicitly off the table.
