Jurassic Park: The Dinosaurs Are All Fake - Theory Explained

Thursday, June 3, 2021

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

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/