Feathered raptors and swimming spinosaurs: Hollywood is catching up with dinosaur reality
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TODAY'S STARTING POINT
'Jurassic World Rebirth' is not a particularly good movie. As Globe film critic Odie Henderson
But while they may not be revolutionary filmmaking compared to the original 'Jurassic Park,' the new movies are evolutionary in portraying some of their prehistoric cast with greater scientific accuracy. It's part of a recent resurgence of depictions in documentaries, museums, and more that are collectively updating dinosaurs' popular image to better align with the latest fossil evidence — while still leaving room for Hollywood license.
'We're easily in what I would call another dinosaur media renaissance,' said Kiersten Formoso, a Rutgers University paleontologist who consulted for one recent documentary, the Apple TV+ series '
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32 years in the making
When 'Jurassic Park' premiered in 1993, its portrayal of dinosaurs as active, fast-moving, and social animals redefined them in the public imagination. But with new discoveries, other depictions have aged poorly.
T. rex, for example, probably had lips to hide its banana-size fangs and didn't sound anything like the films' iconic roar, instead emitting low rumbles or hisses. The raptors? They were fully feathered, looking more like giant deadly birds than scaly monsters.
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The latest sequels have revised some of the older films' more dated depictions. Take Spinosaurus, the sail-backed villain of the third movie who chased the protagonists around a tropical island. In the latest film, it's portrayed more accurately as a lithe, crocodilian swimmer with a paddle-like tail, short legs, and webbed feet that spent most of its time in water.
The series has also
The later films have also introduced newly discovered species like Dreadnoughtus, a long-necked plant eater whose fossilized remains one of Gold's friends helped unearth. 'It's not even just witnessing our general field being brought to life,' she said. 'It's my colleagues specifically, across the field, who get to see their own discoveries brought to life.'
A prop for Dolores the Aquilops, a dinosaur species that made its cinematic debut in "Jurassic World Rebirth."
Jamie McCarthy/Getty
Other reimagined dinos can be found in documentaries, like an updated version of the BBC's '
Still evolving
Most dinosaur media, though, still pits scientific fidelity against entertainment value. 'I think the newer movies are trying, sometimes successfully and sometimes unsuccessfully, to thread the needle,' Gold, the Suffolk paleontologist, said of the 'Jurassic' films.
The results can be mixed. The latest movie's mosasaur — a giant seagoing lizard — looks and acts more like a whale, said Formoso. But the films have accurately depicted its fluked tail, lighter-colored belly, and extra set of teeth. Still, most of the raptors remain featherless. The T. rexes still roar, a bit of cinematic exaggeration that Gold can forgive (it's her ringtone).
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The pace of discovery has also challenged museums, whose murals, placards, and life-size dinosaur models are harder to update. 'Depictions like that, they're out of date the day that they open,' said Mike Horvath, director of exhibits at the Boston Museum of Science. The museum plans to revamp
Yet even extinct depictions can spark interest. Outside the Museum of Science is
The relationship between science and popular depictions can also be symbiotic. Gold is on the board of
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'Tenez!'
Whether you're part of the recent resurgence of tennis or are watching the Wimbledon finals this weekend, you may wonder how the sport started. Apparently, we can thank the French. (
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