Blogs

Season 3 of Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous reveals the show's best friendship, which unfolds in a deadly arc thanks to the poisonous Scorpios Rex.

WARNING: The following contains spoilers for the third season of Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous, now streaming on Netflix.

At the heart of Netflix's Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous is friendship. Fans saw it with Darius and his deceased dad, and that's now spread to Darius and Ben bonding as they face mortality together on Isla Nublar. They've been through thick and thin, and while a lot of the series focused on them, Season 3 confirms the best friendship is actually between Yaz and Sammy.

It's been building for some time, as early on Sammy was trying hard to be Yaz's friend. That quickly switched to Sammy and Kenji flirting, but she still couldn't stay away from Yaz, despite their different personalities, with Yaz being sporty and intense while Sammy's optimistic and goofy.

They've come a long way from the revelation in Season 1 that Sammy was a spy sent to garner intel to sell to rivals of InGen to pull her family out of debt, but no one expected the season to go this way when Sammy is poisoned by the Scorpios Rex in an attack. To make it worse, Bumpy has fled, so their dino-protection is gone.

However, Brooklynn recalls seeing a video at Dr. Wu's lab where he was poisoned too in an ambush. She remembers where they have a cure, so Yaz takes that info and heads out. She doesn't want anyone to slow her down, but what she doesn't tell the rest is she can't afford to lose Sammy, who's like her sister.

She wouldn't admit it, but as her memories indicate, Sammy's selfless attitude has rubbed off on Yaz. She was afraid to show a vulnerable side, but now Yaz is finally ready. After almost losing Ben too, she can't handle another hit like this so using her track skills, speed, agility and flexibility, she evades raptors and other beasts as she slips in and out the lab.

She's a veritable super-soldier, jumping over babbling brooks and whatnot, which leads to her ankle getting injured. It culminates in a race with the Scorpios, but thanks to Ben and Darius distracting it with an explosion, she gets back in time to save her friend. It's a horrific moment, as it seems like Sammy dies, but thankfully, she comes to and realizes Yaz really does love her. More so, as they embrace this wholesome bond, it proves Yaz won't ever give up on Sammy, which is what Darius did when all evidence pointed to Ben being dead.

Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous stars Paul-Mikél Williams as Darius, Jenna Ortega as Brooklynn, Ryan Potter as Kenji, Raini Rodriguez as Sammy, Sean Giambrone as Ben and Kausar Mohammed as Yaz. Season 3 is now streaming on Netflix.

Source: www.cbr.com/

Paleontologists have examined 6,800- to 4,600-year-old coprolites attributed to the little bush moa (Anomalopteryx didiformis). The results support the current hypothesis that this moa species browsed trees and shrubs within the forest understorey, and provide new evidence that ferns were also an important part of its diet.

Most of what scientists currently know about the diets of New Zealand’s extinct moa is heavily biased towards just three species (Dinornis robustus, Megalapteryx didinus and Pachyornis elephantopus), which represent about 90% of all identified coprolites and gizzard content samples. By comparison, the diets of the other six moa species are poorly known.

Moa coprolites and gizzard contents can be dissected and analyzed under the microscope or using DNA identification techniques to decipher what the birds ate. The contents can also be screened to see what seeds the birds may have dispersed.

A rare deposit of 6,800- to 4,600-year-old moa coprolites was recently discovered in Fiordland National Park in the southwest corner of the South Island of New Zealand.

“This rock shelter deposit is scientifically very important as it is the southernmost site from which moa coprolites have been recovered, with the longest documented timespan of coprolite accumulation (2,200 years) preserved within a sediment horizon in a single place,” said Dr. Jamie Wood, a researcher with Manaaki Whenua — Landcare Research.

“Until now, only five little bush moa coprolites have previously been identified, all from central Otago.”

Using DNA analysis and known moa species distributions, the scientists attributed the deposit to the little bush moa, a small-to medium-sized species of moa that lived in lowland closed-canopy forests throughout New Zealand.

Pollen and plant DNA from the coprolites, as well as associated plant macrofossils, show that the deposit spans a period when the forest canopy was transitioning from conifers (dominated by miro, matai, totara and mountain toatoa from the Podocarpaceae family) to silver beech (Lophozonia menziesii) dominance about 6,800 to 4,600 years ago.

DNA, pollen and leaf cuticle fragments of the red mistletoe (Peraxilla tetrapetala), a species usually associated with silver beech, were also found in the little bush moa coprolites.

The nutritious leaves of this mistletoe are highly palatable and today are also sought out by the introduced possum (Trichosurus vulpecula) and browsing mammals such as deer.

The little bush moa coprolites contained very few seeds compared with other analysed moa coprolites.

“This observation was interesting because it contrasts with what we know about other moa species which played an important role dispersing tiny seeds (less than 3 mm) of many plant species in their droppings,” said Dr. Janet Wilmshurst, a researcher from Manaaki Whenua — Landcare Research and the University of Auckland.

“The near absence of seeds in the little bush moa coprolites indicates they were not important seed dispersers, and that they may have been targeting the largest conifer seeds which get totally ground up in their muscular gizzards and destroyed rather than dispersed.”

The study also provided striking new evidence that the foliage of ground ferns were an important part of their diet.

“While little bush moa may not have been great seed dispersers, based on our finding of ground fern DNA, frond cuticle remains and high spore counts, they may have played a previously unrecognised role as dispersers of ground fern spores throughout New Zealand forests,” Dr. Wood said.

The study was published in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews.

_____

Jamie R. Wood et al. 2021. Mid-Holocene coprolites from southern New Zealand provide new insights into the diet and ecology of the extinct little bush moa (Anomalopteryx didiformis). Quaternary Science Reviews 263: 106992; doi: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2021.106992

Source: www.sci-news.com/

Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous just had its own civil war as the kids lost the plot on the island, with humans and dinos threatening them.

WARNING: The following contains spoilers for the third season of Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous, now streaming on Netflix.

In Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous, there have been minor fallouts between the teens before but nothing too damaging to their relationships. After all, they're stronger and safer together, and better equipped to survive Isla Nublar by having each other's backs. However, in the dangerous third season, a massive rift opens up, creating a civil war that'll have dire repercussions moving forward.

It happens between Kenji and Darius in the final episode, "Stay on Mission," with the former being furious that the team was willing to sacrifice Brooklynn's life to recover crucial data. Knowing that Dr. Wu's laptop had intel that could expose his sinister experiments, they had embarked on a heist to steal the computer and once they escaped with the information, they planned to alert the relevant authorities.

However, Wu's mercenaries were more brutal than first assumed and while they did steal the laptop, Brooklynn ended up being left behind. Ironically, she was the one who urged them to abandon her for the greater good. When they arranged for a swap, Kenji was the first one to be adamant that Brooklynn's life came before bringing Wu's empire down.

They set up a scam to exchange the machine, and while it got destroyed, they managed to copy data onto a flash drive. It culminated with them rescuing Brooklynn and getting help from their surroundings, dinos included, to board a boat and leave the island. But rather than celebrate their victory, Kenji was livid with Darius. He had a dark moment, telling Darius they were no longer friends, and he clearly doesn't hold the camp in the same light anymore.

Previously, Kenji almost lost Sammy due to poisoning from the Scorpios Rex, and he also has abandonment issues with his family, so yet another brush with Brooklynn's mortality drove him over the edge. Given that Darius was training him as a leader, Kenji may well try to take over, assert dominance or rebel against the others.

To him, Darius can't protect the crew anymore and after learning so much from everyone else, Kenji wants to steer the ship. He could even try to sway Sammy to his side, as she has a crush on him and would understand the sanctity of life, along with Ben, who was abandoned in Season 1 when they thought he died.

Ultimately, Kenji doesn't care if Darius was listening to Brooklynn; he just wants to save them but despite his good intentions, he's not leadership material. Kenji isn't as smart, brave or physical as the others and as he warns Darius, it's clear that he -- and whoever follows him en route to Costa Rica -- will complicate the mission.

Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous stars Paul-Mikél Williams as Darius, Jenna Ortega as Brooklynn, Ryan Potter as Kenji, Raini Rodriguez as Sammy, Sean Giambrone as Ben and Kausar Mohammed as Yaz. Season 3 is available to stream on Netflix.

Source: www.cbr.com/

Let's look at how the sinister threats of dinos and humans on Isla Nublar set up a fourth season for Netflix's Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous.

WARNING: The following contains spoilers for the third season of Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous, now streaming on Netflix.

Season 3 of Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous definitely proves to be the most harrowing yet with the Scorpios Rex on the loose. In addition to velociraptors and other dino threats, it gets even scarier when Dr. Wu and his mercenaries come to Isla Nublar to get his laptop so he can carry out his plans in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.

However, while Darius' crew of teens manage to evade all these devilish figures, there are more problems on the horizon for a fourth season.

The Stowaway Dinosaur

The kids are able to get a USB with the data and escape the island, as well as Wu's mercenaries. It is assumed they'll die but on their boat, all seems well as they plan to get to Costa Rica. Once they're on land, they'll expose the intel but the season ends with a dino inside a room below deck, pounding the door to break out.

It could be a raptor given the power and strength of the banging, as well as its size, but it may even be a younger Scorpios Rex. This could be a huge problem, as Wu's creation is able to asexually reproduce, something that stunned even him. This move would make sense, seeing as it's the show's deadliest dino yet and deserves to be in another season. Either way, this mysterious dino is sure to throw them off course as all hell breaks loose, especially since they left Bumpy at the park.

Finding Isla Sorna

If they veer off course, there's a good chance they could end up shipwrecked at Site B, Isla Sorna -- the other island seen in Jurassic Park III. There are many dangers there too, and a new batch of raptors or T-Rexes could come hunting the teens. It could become a feeding ground if a Scorpios is let loose there, which could lead to new, nastier dino-hunters scouring the landscape.

This option is believable, since the ship's hull is damaged and Kenji's piloting skills aren't that great. It's also unpredictable terrain where Darius' team might even encounter another Spinosaurus. It's also unknown if Wu, InGen and the Masrani Global Group ran more dino experiments there, but what's for certain is there'll be peril lurking nearby.

Kenji's Wrath

While the teens are stronger together, one further complication could arise in the form of Kenji's feud with Darius. He hates how Darius and the others left Brooklynn behind and used her as a pawn to get Wu's data, so he's poised to be a problem. There could be trust issues and maybe even a rebellion if he can sway people to his side.

Kenji did learn a lot from Darius about being a leader, and seeing as Sammy has a crush on him and almost died, she may side with him. Ben also had a brush with mortality, so he too could be tempted to follow a new captain, leaving Darius, Yaz and Brooklynn torn. Hopefully it doesn't get too bad, because they'll have enough issues as it is trying to survive all these alpha predators.

Wu's Sinister Mission

Wu might discover his data was stolen and with so many resources at his disposal, he could probably track the kids down. He knows them all too well after fighting on Site A, so he could send more mercs and choppers after them to ensure they don't expose his experiments. Given that Jurassic World: Dominion has dinos in the wild, he'll want to absolve himself of all blame as soon as he can.

This may also see a glimmer of hope arise, with aid visiting both islands once more, maybe even including Chris Pratt's Owen and Bryce Dallas Howard's Claire. But they can't be late on this rescue mission because Wu already has a head start. Plus, his thugs want proper revenge on the teens, who were able to dupe them in their first encounter in Season 3 by using dinos to kill the attackers at key moments.

Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous stars Paul-Mikél Williams as Darius, Jenna Ortega as Brooklynn, Ryan Potter as Kenji, Raini Rodriguez as Sammy, Sean Giambrone as Ben and Kausar Mohammed as Yaz. Season 3 is now streaming on Netflix.

Source: www.cbr.com/

In a paper published in the journal PeerJ, paleontologists present bite force estimates for a juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex based on mechanical tests designed to replicate its bite marks.

For the study, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh’s Professor Joseph Peterson and colleagues made a replica of the scimitar-shaped tooth of a young Tyrannosaurus rex using a dental-grade cobalt chromium alloy.

They then mounted the metal tooth in a mechanical testing frame and pushed it slowly, at a millimeter per second, into a fresh-frozen and thawed humerus of a cow.

Forces required to replicate punctures were recorded and puncture dimensions were measured.

“What we did, an actualistic study, is to say, Let’s actually stab the thing with a tooth and see what it does,” Professor Peterson said.

“What we are finding is that our estimates are slightly different than other models, but they are within a close enough range — we are on the same page.”

The paleontologists determined that juvenile Tyrannosaurus rexes could have exerted up to 5,641 newtons of force, somewhere between the jaw forces exerted by a hyena and a crocodile.

Compare that to the bite force of an adult Tyrannosaurus rex — about 35,000 newtons — or to the puny biting power of humans: 300 newtons.

Previous bite force estimates for juvenile Tyrannosaurus rexes — based on reconstruction of the jaw muscles or from mathematically scaling down the bite force of adult Tyrannosaurus rexes — were considerably less, about 4,000 newtons.

“If you are up to almost 6,000 newtons of bite force, that places them in a slightly different weight class,” Dr. Tseng said.

“By really refining our estimates of juvenile bite force, we can more succinctly place them in a part of the food web and think about how they may have played the role of a different kind of predator from their larger, adult parents.”

The study revealed that juvenile Tyrannosaurus rexes, while not yet able to crush bones like their 30- or 40-year-old parents, were developing their biting techniques and strengthening their jaw muscles to be able do so once their adult teeth came in.

“This actually gives us a little bit of a metric to help us gauge how quickly the bite force is changing from juvenile to adulthood, and something to compare with how the body is changing during that same period of time,” Professor Peterson said.

“Are they already crushing bone? No, but they are puncturing it. It allows us to get a better idea of how they are feeding, what they are eating.”

“It is just adding more to that full picture of how animals like tyrannosaurs lived and grew and the roles that they played in that ecosystem.”

_____

J.E. Peterson et al. 2021. Bite force estimates in juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex based on simulated puncture marks. PeerJ 9: e11450; doi: 10.7717/peerj.11450

Source: www.sci-news.com/

A compelling fan theory argues that Jurassic Park's dinosaurs aren't clones but genetically engineered mashups meant to fool the general public.

A Jurassic Park fan theory postulates that all of the dinosaurs in the blockbuster film saga are fake. Of course, Jurassic Park is fiction and cloned dinosaurs don't exist in the real world, but the fan theory put forth in 2013 by Redditor Browmra04 argues that in-universe, Jurassic Park's prehistoric creations weren't clones made from dinosaur DNA but amalgamations made from different animals that were built to resemble what people think dinosaurs look like.

The pseudo-science in Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park and Michael Crichton's original novel states that InGen cloned dinosaurs from DNA harvested from mosquitoes that were preserved in amber. The ancient pests drank dino blood and InGen took the dino DNA from the insects, filling in the gaps in the genetic code with amphibian DNA to create Jurassic Park's original 15 dinosaurs species. Ever since the film was released, scientists have argued how Jurassic Park is filled with dinosaur mistakes. First, any DNA in a mosquito would have degraded over 65 million years. There would also have been multiple DNA samples mixed from multiple dinosaurs a mosquito drank from, so the odds of finding a mosquito carrying the DNA of a single species of dinosaur are staggering. In the real world, genetically engineering dinosaurs using InGen's methods isn't possible, but the Jurassic Park fan theory makes a case that InGen also knew it couldn't be done and that John Hammond's (Richard Attenborough) explanation for how he made dinosaurs was an elaborate cover story.

According to the fan theory, what InGen actually did in Jurassic Park was genetically engineer animals from reptile, mammal, and avian DNA to create what most people believe are what dinosaurs look like. For instance, science now knows that many real dinosaurs had feathers, a velociraptor was the size of a chimpanzee, and a dilophosaurus doesn't spit acid. Therefore, the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park aren't actually clones but a series of genetic experiments, and the dinosaur theme park itself was a way for John Hammond to bilk the public and profit from showing the world "real dinosaurs". The theory goes on to suggest that Hammond hiring Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill), Dr. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern), and Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) was part of the ruse because the scientists weren't meant to sign off on the safety of Jurassic Park as they were led to believe. Rather, Hammond invited the scientists to fool them as to the veracity of InGen's "cloned dinos" story, because if these experts believed the dinosaurs were real, so would the public.

John Hammond's own speech to Ellie Sattler seems to back up the theory since the old man confessed he got his start showing the public flea circuses. Hammond is Jurassic Park's stand-in for P.T. Barnum and his career as a flim-flam man is part of his character. Jurassic Park would have been Hammond's ultimate deception since none of his dinosaurs are the clones of actual prehistoric beings he claims they are. Indeed, the "birthing lab' that's part of the Jurassic Park tour was just a show since The Lost World established that Isla Nublar's dinosaurs were actually grown in Site B, which was a different island altogether named Isla Sorna.

The theory is compelling and has a degree of merit to its logic. Even if InGen's "extracting DNA from mosquitos in amber" methods were 100% on the level, none of the dinosaurs were 100% genetically accurate anyway since they are all partially comprised of frog DNA, are all female, and were bred with a lysine deficiency. There was always chicanery involved in InGen's dinos. Jurassic Park may also have been damaging to the real-world public perception of dinosaurs since its popularity has defined what people think dinosaurs look and act like.

In a way, Jurassic World's hybrid dinosaurs may be the most 'honest' way the franchise has presented the prehistoric beasts. Jurassic World makes no bones that the Indominus Rex, Indoraptor, and Scorpios Rex never existed and are lab-bred monsters meant to terrify the public. But whether or not fans subscribe to the "Jurassic Park dinosaurs are all fake" theory, it shouldn't affect the overall enjoyment and affinity for dinosaurs instilled by the Jurassic franchise.

Source: https://screenrant.com/

Jurassic World: Dominion director Colin Trevorrow says the film's marketing push will begin sooner than expected.

While Jurassic World: Dominion is still over a year away from its June 10, 2022 release date, director Colin Trevorrow teased that the film's marketing push could begin earlier than expected.

"It's going to be sooner than you think. I can't talk about it just yet," Trevorrow told The Hollywood Reporter. "We've got something fun planned, and it has everything to do with getting people back into the movie theaters."

As the coronavirus continues to subside in the United States, film studios have been pushing consumers to return to theaters. Jurassic World: Dominion distributor Universal Pictures released a F9 featurette that showcases Vin Diesel celebrating the release of the film and a return to theaters. Marvel Studios and Disney released their own trailer narrated by Stan Lee for their theatrical releases, using an audience reaction clip of the portals scene from Avengers: Endgame to remind fans of the experience.

Directed by Colin Trevorrow, Jurassic World: Dominion stars Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Jake Johnson, Justice Smith, Daniella Pineda, Omar Sy, Isabelle Sermon and B.D. Wong. The film arrives in theaters on June 10, 2022.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter / www.cbr.com/

We armchair analyze the circa-1993 autonomous driving tech in the iconic dinosaur movie.

Way back in the early '90s a visionary director teamed up with some of the most creative minds in the movie business to produce an incredible forward-looking epic, a cautionary tale about the impact that science would have on the future of humankind. Jurassic Park didn't only set box office records, the movie also served to illustrate technologies and concepts that were just beginning to creep into the public's awareness.

We're not talking about genetic engineering or the perils of playing god while reviving an extinct species of deadly carnivore No, we're focused on the other futuristic technology that played a starring role in Spielberg's dino disaster flick: self-driving cars—specifically a gaggle of first-generation Ford Explorers that are mostly destroyed by the end of the movie.

RELATED ARTICLE: Must Go Faster! 10 Cool Jurassic Park Vehicles

Secret Self-Driving SUVs

Even though the original novel had park visitors riding around in Toyota Land Cruisers, on screen, the official Jurassic Park chariots were customized original Ford Explorers. Aside from their brush guards and auxiliary lighting, perhaps the most obvious modifications made to the factory-fresh Fords was the installation of a full glass bubble roof (a detail that would enhance a terrifying T-Rex-on-Explorer scene in the movie).

A closer look at each of the Explorers used in filming reveals details that rarely make it into the dozens of tribute trucks that have been built by loving fans over the years. Nestled between the bumper bars and just below the grille sit a pair of what are clearly optical sensors—and just above them, a downward-facing camera that's not aimed at any sauropod. Zoom in on the interior of each SUV and there's another telltale clue in some shots in the form of a second sensor suite positioned on the dashboard just behind the steering wheel (where the gauge cluster would traditionally be placed).

It was easy to miss these details the first time around—or even the 57th time around, depending on how much of a Jurassic Park superfan you might be—because back in 1993 when the movie was first released there was no pop culture context for what a self-driving car might look like. It also doesn't help that none of these gadgets were ever once referenced in the film by any of the characters, further obscuring their role in how the park operated. That being said, with semi-autonomous driver's aides now commonplace on even affordable automobiles the appearance of these plus-size sensors sticks out like a glaring red beacon that predicted the future many motorists are living today.

Tracking Down The "Track"

There's a further wrinkle about how the Jurassic Park Explorers were presented that served to mask their self-driving tech: each of the SUVs in the park travels along a clearly visible metallic track that runs directly beneath the middle of the vehicles.

At first glance it's easy to make the assuming that the Fords are in fact tethered to the track itself, especially given that they're electric vehicles. The audience finds out the latter when a character back at the park's HQ references the battery level in the SUVs, which indicates that they're not being tugged along, or even directly powered, by that strip of metal at all.

So why is it there? We're never told directly, and it's possible that those scenes were left on the cutting room floor as being a little too expository about a Jurassic Park feature that's clearly tangential to the no-longer-extinct main attractions. From our vantage point in the future, however, it's possible to suss out the details of the park's self-driving systems.

Piecing It All Together

Our best guess for the basic design of the self-driving systems in Jurassic Park's Ford Explorers is that they're of the car-to-X variety. This means the vehicles communicate with infrastructure around them to figure out where to go. To that end, the Explorers seem to make use of optical sensors that aren't focused on the road ahead so much as they are on that strip of track weaving through the dino park. While image processing technology capable of guiding a vehicle based on a video feed didn't exist in a commercially deployable way in 1993, neither did the genetic tomfoolery that birthed dinosaurs using frog DNA and amber-trapped mosquitoes.

There are multiple ways to bring this particular piece of movie magic into the real world. It's easy to sci-fi a setup that used cameras to pick up the shape of the metal track against the background of the terrain and use that to steer the trucks. Alternatively, those wide bulbous sensors just underneath the video camera could have been employed to pick up a spectrum of light that's not visible to the human eye. Infrared emitters were a well-understood technology that had been in use for over a decade at the time of production, and embedding this equipment in the track would not have been a difficult task. The real challenge, as with the video system described above, is writing the code and finding the processing power to make use of the data provided by the sensors.

There's also a clue that the track could have been used to provide power to the vehicles through induction. Despite no visible point of contact, dialogue during the movie suggests that the batteries in the Explorers that keep the headlights shining even after the electrical grid goes down were used as backups to a more robust electrical system. This is further evidenced by the way the trucks stop in front of the T-Rex paddock after the park's power failure, rather than continuing to a safe haven.

If the track was indeed "live" like the third rail in a subway, it introduces another intriguing possibility for guiding the SUVs through their dino-safari. Some industrial applications use low-frequency guidance signals embedded in factory floors and warehouse layouts that can be used by forklifts and delivery trucks to find their way to the right shelf or pallet. It's possible, although less likely given how many optical sensors we see attached to the Explorers, that the Fords were steering using a similar system while the track was receiving power.

Of course, all of this is speculation as to how the period trucks could have achieved autonomy—but in several scenes, the Ford Explorers appear to be really driving themselves, with the steering wheels moving and the vehicles accelerating and braking on their own. Or were they? During the actual movie production, to lend the effect of self-driving, the Explorers used in those scenes were modified with redundant controls in the cargo area, hidden from view. So, they were human-driven, but by someone stuffed in the trunk.

A Different Future

There's a key difference between the self-driving technologies used by the Jurassic Park Explorers and those deployed by the driver's aides found on modern vehicles. The movie trucks were intended to operate in a controlled environment with no other traffic, a closed system (you know, ignoring the marauding T-Rexes and such), and so passive low-power signals and/or basic camera and optical sensor processing were enough to carry the day.

Out on the road, it's a different story. In dynamic environment, with other cars, trucks, pedestrians, and cyclists vying for the use of the same limited road space, technologies such as stereoscopic cameras, radar, lidar, and sonar are all used to look in all directions as distantly as possible and provide reams of data to software that can process millions of different data points per second. It's a far more complex situation, and one that moves at a speed much quicker than the 20 mph or so exhibited by the Fords in the park.

Still, even with all of our technological advances in the three decades or so since Jurassic Park hit theaters, we're a long way from having any true self-driving vehicles on public roads. Each and every semi-autonomous, self-steering, or adaptive cruise control system out there is currently only an interim step towards completely removing human input from the highway equation—at best achieving Level 2 autonomy per the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) scale here in America. SAE Level 3 systems (full self driving is Level 5) are just entering customer hands in Japan, but again, that's a smaller country with a road network that's easier to map than the vast, crumbling infrastructure you'd find here in the U.S. Until the next-generation of hyper-accurate maps and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I), vehicle-to-everything (V2X) and vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication appear on the horizon, we won't be able to live Jurassic Park's self-driving dream outside the well-defined confines of its spared-no-expense gates. While self-driving tech remains elusive nearly 30 years after Jurassic Park premiered, we are close to one of its predictions: An all-electric Ford Explorer is on the horizon.

Source: www.motortrend.com/

While Jurassic Park fans are divisive about the third movie, they might still want to know how Jurassic Park III was going to be very different.

The Jurassic Park and Jurassic World films are no strangers to bumpy productions. Even the very first film had to overcome many hurdles in order to become one of the most famous films ever made. The filming process was halted due to a hurricane on location.

However, none of the series have had as infamous of a troubled production as Jurassic Park III. It's become well-known that many rewrites, changes, and issues up until the end of filming. The script was still being written as they were filming and as a result, a lot of story ideas and scenes were scrapped along the way.

10 - Michael Crichton Was Originally A Co-Writer

The creator of the franchise himself, Michael Crichton, was involved with the writing of Jurassic Park III. However, after only days of working on the film, he left after being unable to come up with ideas that he felt worked for what he wanted from another film.

When the author of the book denies a Jurassic Park film, that's not exactly a good sign. From there three other writers took full control of the script.

9 - Pteranodons Were What Brought Grant To The Island

In one version of the script, the film was going to open with Pteranodons escaping and killing people on the mainland. This is what would have brought Alan Grant back into the story, as more of an investigator.

Some would argue, this would have made for a more natural return of Grant rather than the contrived reason in the final product. However, this script was rejected by Steven Spielberg and director Joe Johnston.

8 - The T-Rex Fight With The Spinosaurus Was Longer

The battle between the juvenile T-Rex and the Spinosaurus ends in a divisive moment with the Spinosaurus snapping the Rex's neck, killing it. Fans of the iconic dinosaur were not happy since the fight between the two monsters was only a couple of minutes long.

There was an extended version of this battle which would feature the Rex holding its own, more attacks from the Spinosaurus, and what likely could have been a more beloved fight than what fans got. It's strange that it's cut so short since Jurassic Park III is already a surprisingly short movie at little over an hour and a half.

7 - Udesky Fought The Raptor Pack

Jurassic Park III sets up Udesky as this skilled mercenary character but his demise is rather quick and mostly off-screen. Originally, Udesky was supposed to go out swinging, using a wooden stick to defend himself. The only surviving footage of this battle is a single still of Udesky holding the stick.

This is one of many abandoned scenes across the franchise fans would have preferred to keep in. It would have made Udesky's death more impactful, giving the character more depth and respect.

6 - Spinosaurus Was Not The Original Villain

There are definitely fans of the Spinosaurus who hope the creature returns in future films. However, the Spinosaurus was actually one of the last decisions made. In the same family as the Spinosaurus, Jurassic Park III was going to use a Baryonyx as one of the main threats.

The Baryonyx would get its chance to shine in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. From there, it would get a video game debut in Jurassic World: Evolution.

5 - Alan Grant Was Obsessed With Being On The Island

It may have been more realistic, most fans agree that the bitter version of the beloved Alan Grant in Jurassic Park III contradicted the ending of the first film. In Steven Spielberg's idea for the script, Alan Grant was much more lighthearted about the dinosaurs, even obsessed with studying him.

Jurassic Park III was going to start with Alan Grant living on an InGen island so he can perform his studies. Joe Johnston did not care for this idea, so none of it made it into the final product.

4 - Billy Was Supposed To Die

Billy Brennan's original death was when the Pteranodons attack him in the river, hence why the river fills with blood. This would have resulted in one of the grisliest deaths in the franchise. Unfortunately, Alessandro Nivola protested this death and demanded that his character live.

This is why Billy miraculously shows up at the end, somehow alive and with little wounds. The military somehow found Billy and rescued him before finding the others. Most fans can agree, this change was rather egregious.

3 - Drastically Different Ending

Speaking of that ending, it suffered from massive changes all around. Instead of the anti-climactic arrival of the military and everyone is saved, there was going to be another action sequence. The military was going to be attacked by rogue Pteranodons; it was going to showcase that it was those rogues that killed the parasailing crew in the opening scene.

A similar fate happened in the first Jurassic Park with an ending involving the series icon Rexy attacking the helicopter as the heroes make their escape. Except, in that case, the change was made for a serene ending that fit the story whereas Jurassic Park III's final ending felt dull.

2 - Cast Of Teenagers

While the Jurassic Park films are essentially big-budget monster movies, going full slasher flick was a choice that many are glad was scrapped. In one script, Jurassic Park III was going to center around a group of teenagers stranded on Isla Sorna and trying to survive.

This idea made Jurassic Park III sound more akin to a rejected Friday The 13th clone. Sure, it would have changed up the formula but in a very poor way.

1 - Death Of The Spinosaurus

In Jurassic Park III, the Spinosaurus just leaves the plot altogether after the fight on the river. It barely gets wounded by fire then just runs off, never to be seen again. Yet another anti-climax that diminishes what is one of the most enjoyable villains of the series. Well, the Spinosaurus was going to reappear to attack the military on the beach.

Providing a more climactic ending for the velociraptors as well, the raptor pack was going to attack and fight the Spinosaurus. They were even going to kill the Spinosaurus, harking back to the fight with Rexy in the first film but reversed winner and loser.

Source: https://screenrant.com/

The LEGO Group has finally revealed the four rumoured Jurassic World sets launching later this year, including one seemingly inspired by 21320 Dinosaur Fossils.

76940 T. rex Dinosaur Fossil Exhibition allows kids to ‘role-play as palaeontologists’ (according to the marketing copy) with – as the name suggests – a fossilised version of a T. rex skeleton. Cast predominantly in tan, it feels like a smaller and more juniorised version of the larger collections of bones found in 2019’s LEGO Ideas set.

It’s also just one of four sets anchored around animated Netflix series Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous, the third season of which has just arrived on the streaming platform. The other three revisit familiar dinos in a Stygimoloch, Carnotaurus and Baryonyx – but while there are no new moulds, all three beasts come in brand new colours.

Check out all of the newly-revealed Jurassic World sets below. They’ll be available to order at LEGO.com from September 1.

76939 Stygimoloch Dinosaur Escape
Price: £34.99 / $39.99 / €39.99 Pieces: 129 Minifigures: Ben, Brooklynn, Claire Dearing

76940 T. rex Dinosaur Fossil Exhibition
Price: £27.99 / $29.99 / €29.99 Pieces: 198 Minifigures: Darius, Owen Grady

76941 Carnotaurus Dinosaur Chase
Price: £44.99 / $49.99 / €49.99 Pieces: 240 Minifigures: Kenji, Sammy, Owen Grady

76942 Baryonyx Dinosaur Boat Escape
Price: £74.99 / $79.99 / €79.99 Pieces: 308 Minifigures: Darius, Guard, Yaz, Owen Grady

Source: www.brickfanatics.com/