Topic: Jurassic World aka Jurassic Park IV

[Nemesis]

Link

Twenty-two years after the events of Jurassic Park (1993), Isla Nublar now features a fully functioning dinosaur theme park, Jurassic World, as originally envisioned by John Hammond. After 10 years of operation and visitor rates declining, in order to fulfill a corporate mandate, a new attraction is created to re-spark visitor's interest, which backfires horribly.

Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXiahojLbOw

[Sirgod]

Saw this the other day, and I am so pumped for this! In fact, I am more excited about this than the new SW movie. The last three just killed the whole franchise for me.

But this movie, this looks like they took Chrichens (sp) work  and added all that much more to it, in a logical and scary fashion.

stephen

[Nemesis]

Lets hope they added the Dinochicken. 

[knightstorm]

I think the whole genetically modified hybrid thing sounds stupid.

[Corbomite]

The whole concept is rather stupid. There isn't enough oxygen in our atmosphere to power animals of that size on land anymore. There is a reason that elephants are the largest land animal currently.

[knightstorm]

No.  The reason mammals never got as large is because there are several limitations inherent in mammals which limit their size.

[Corbomite]

No.  The reason mammals never got as large is because there are several limitations inherent in mammals which limit their size.

Such as? The species has nothing to do with it. The largest animal that ever lived is a mammal.

[knightstorm]

The way Mammalian bones fit together limits the size of land mammals by reducing the level of cartilage that can fit between joints.  This isn't an issue with whales because the water is supporting their weight.

[Corbomite]

OK, then why are Komodo Dragons the largest legged land reptilian right now?

[manitoba1073]

OK, then why are Komodo Dragons the largest legged land reptilian right now?

All reptiles continuously grow. The only thing that stops them from getting exceptionally large is limited food.

[Corbomite]

OK, then why are Komodo Dragons the largest legged land reptilian right now?

All reptiles continuously grow. The only thing that stops them from getting exceptionally large is limited food.

And there was a ton more food 100 million years ago as compared to now?

[knightstorm]

OK, then why are Komodo Dragons the largest legged land reptilian right now?

Because large reptiles would be vulnerable to mammalian predators due to carrier's constraint as well as the less efficient 3 chambered hearts in most extant species.

[Corbomite]

That makes about as much sense as a five sided cube. Nothing messes with a Komodo Dragon except another Dragon. With their poisionous bite, other predators would soon learn to stay well away from them because the benefits of killing one would be soon eclipsed by the death of the attacker. Big cats have been seen killing crocodiles, but crocs have certain vulnerabilities that can be exploited by a smart cat.

[Corbomite]

Consider this:

Insects, crocodilians, turtles, sharks and snakes all predated or coexisted with dinosaurs. None of these species' biophysiology has changed significantly since that time and they are bound under the same laws of physics and limitations of available resources as their ancestors, yet all have examples of enormous specimens in the fossil record. After the asteroid hit and the food chain collapsed, the extinction of the larger forms was a given, but we have had 65 million years of recovery, yet none of these species has ever returned to that size or proportion. The largest predator on the planet currently is a mammal, the sperm whale, and look what it has to go through to get its prefered prey. It is only able to do this through extreme adaptation and the ability to exist from its fat stores in lean times, something that many other species can't do. If it were easy there would be more species that were that large on land and in the sea. None of the other largest animals on the planet currently are predators, even the largest shark. The largest animals 100 million years ago weren't predators either. The largest land mammal we know of that ever lived was at least twice the size of an elephant (based on available evidence) and where are examples of that size around now? Oxygen plays the greatest role in the ability for animals to grow large and proliferate, not the other factors that have been stated. None of those other factors has changed as they are universal laws that affect all life on all levels and in any era.

[Corbomite]

I've always wondered why these creatures haven't return to their original sizes and thank goodness they haven't because imagine a mosquito returning to prehistoric size  I'd be terrorfied.

Here you go Adam  :

Food of the Gods

[knightstorm]

That makes about as much sense as a five sided cube. Nothing messes with a Komodo Dragon except another Dragon. With their poisionous bite, other predators would soon learn to stay well away from them because the benefits of killing one would be soon eclipsed by the death of the attacker. Big cats have been seen killing crocodiles, but crocs have certain vulnerabilities that can be exploited by a smart cat.

Lizards are only capable of short bursts of speed, and exhaust very quickly.  I'd consider that a hugely exploitable weakness, and its considered one of the reasons for the ascendancy of the dinosaurs in the first place.  Komodos don't share their island with any other large predators which is why they were able to grow as big as they are.

Consider this:

Insects, crocodilians, turtles, sharks and snakes all predated or coexisted with dinosaurs. None of these species' biophysiology has changed significantly since that time and they are bound under the same laws of physics and limitations of available resources as their ancestors, yet all have examples of enormous specimens in the fossil record.

Mammals shared the world with the dinosaurs for much of their reign, yet remained relatively small until the dinosaurs went extinct.  The main reason for this was because the prevalence of the dinosaurs was blocking the mammals from moving into other niches in the food chain.  Would it be so surprising if mammals were affecting other animals the same way.

[Corbomite]

My point is that there are other large reptiles on the mainlands and they do just fine being the top predator in their environments competing with large predatory mammals.

There is good evidence to support the theory that dinosaurs were on the way out before the asteroid hit. There is no way to know what mammals could have achieved without the disaster.

[Sirgod]

I think also, if we look at the mammals around at the time of the T-rex, or even further back like say the stegosaurus, they had the benefit of being mouse sized.  I'd have to dig through some old books or do a google search, but I don't think larger mammal species like the mammoth or the Sloth, where around until shortly before the last ice age. (I could be wrong here guys, wouldn't be the first time.)

I tell yeah, Take a Grizzly and a T-rex and scale them to size, and it would be one hell of a fight to watch though. but then that takes us all back to the original premise that I see in this discussion, which would be, "How much suspension of belief , do we allow from film to film?"

anyways, just my 2 cents gentlemen.

[Nemesis]

Back when Jurassic Park 2 had just been announced a friend asked me what I thought of the accuracy of the dinosaurs in the first movie.  After a little thought I told him the dinosaurs should have been fluffy.  Either covered with feathers or the precursors of feathers.  He called me crazy.  A few weeks later I showed him a Scientific American magazine with feathered dinosaurs on the cover.  So where are the feathers on these dinosaurs?

Don't forget that dinosaurs != reptiles.  The dinosaurs you see every day are warm blooded and commonly called birds. 

[knightstorm]

I don't know if I would consider birds to be dinosaurs, but dinosaurs were definitely closer to birds than they were to reptiles.  In addition to the fact that they had feathers, a while back they were able to extract soft tissue from a T-Rex bone, and found that the proteins were most similar to those found in birds.  As for accuracy, there's no way a T-Rex could have moved as fast as the one from the films.  Don't get me started on Dilophosaurus.  As for the raptors, I'll give them a pass on the feather thing because that hadn't been discovered yet, but they're really based on Deinonychus.