Characters appearing in Jurassic Park (the novel).
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Visitors to Jurassic Park
Grant
Dr. Alan Grant
A world-renowned Paleontologist.- Badass Bookworm: He kills three raptors, using his wits. He tricks two into eating poisoned eggs, and directly injects the third with poison.
- Cool Old Guy: See above.
- Determinator: And how! Once he got lost in the desert when his truck fell into a ravine. He broke his right leg and had no water, but walked for four days until he found his way back to civilization (as a rule of thumb, human beings can survive three days without water).
- Friend to All Children: Grant has a fondness for kids, finding their love for dinosaurs endearing. He gets on very well with Tim and Lex. Interestingly, he starts the first JP movie as a bit of a Child Hater but grows out of it as the film goes on.
- Only Sane Man: Alternates the role with Malcolm and Gennaro.
- She Is Not My Girlfriend: With Sattler. This is very literal because Sattler 1) is his assistant and student (and he sees it as wrong to see her in that way) and 2) going to marry a doctor in Chicago. He also mentions at one point to have been married (but is currently a widower).
- Walking Tech Bane: Doesn't particularly like or understand computers.
Ellie
Dr. Ellie Sattler
A young, energetic Paleobotanist and Dr. Grant's former student.- Action Girl: Outruns, outsmarts, and fights off various Velociraptors, The Dreaded among the Park's dinosaurs.
- Idiot Ball: Briefly carries it when she is attempting to distract the raptors. Wu repeatedly demands she come inside in a panic but Ellie, who up until this point had been sane and rational, keeps declaring that she knows what she is doing and doesn't get what the problem is. This leads to Wu dying and Ellie herself almost being killed by the raptors.
- The Lad-ette: One of the first things we see her do in the book is chug a whole can of beer.
- Leg Focus: Ian Malcolm and Tim Murphy both take note of her legs.
- Ms. Fanservice: More or less all the male characters comment on her to themselves privately.
- Or out loud, in the case of Ian Malcolm.
Ian: You're extremely pretty, Dr. Sattler. I could look at your legs all day. - Took a Level in Badass: Well, fighting off two Velociraptors qualifies her for this trope.
Malcolm
Dr. Ian Malcolm
A mathematician specializing in Chaos Theory invited to the park by Donald Gennaro as an insurance consultant.- Brutal Honesty: Several times. It's one of the reasons Hammond doesn't like him.
- Breakout Character: As played by Jeff Goldblum in the film adaptation, he was so popular — and, conveniently, Spared by the Adaptation — that his death is retconned in the next book, The Lost World, so he can be the protagonist.
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Especially while high on morphine.
- Consistent Clothing Style: His introductory descriptions state that he always wears all-black outfits. He notes that he doesn't have to worry about coordinating shirts, pants, or even matching socks as a result, since they'll all blend together, no matter what.
- Cool Shades: Wears them.
- Deadpan Snarker: Sometimes.
- Dented Iron: Survives being bit and flung away by the T. rex. His injuries, however, made him bed-bound for the rest of the book and complications from them (temporarily) kill him off for real. In the second book, he's alive but uses a cane.
- Ignored Expert: Hammond hires him to predict the park's future, using mathematical models. Malcolm comes to the conclusion that the park will unavoidably collapse, but Hammond refuses to believe him.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Is insensitive and a little obtuse, but is a nice guy deep down.
- Killed Off for Real: Dies from rex-inflicted injuries and their complication by lack of treatment (by a real doctor-Harding, as the Closest Thing We Got (a vet), does his best, but he couldn't do enough for him) by the end of the book. His status as a Breakout Character and being Spared by the Adaptation in the film had him upgraded through Retcon to having been Only Mostly Dead and having been recovered by the events of The Lost World. It helps that his death was described so obtusely in the original novel that a reader could feasibly not even notice.
- Mad Mathematician: For a given value of "mad". (He cheerfully calls himself "mad as a hatter"). His field of research is chaos theory, and many of his filibuster speeches throughout the book are pretty much about how the park is doomed because dinosaurs are a gigantic unknown factor.
- Meta Guy: Mildly.
- Once an Episode: In the first novel, he gets his leg injured and spends the rest of his time bedridden and philosophizing. In the second novel, this happens again, though in different circumstances.
- Only Sane Man: Shares the role with Grant and Gennaro.
- Southern-Fried Genius: A Texan, he is one of the best mathematicians. In The Lost World he starts singing "Dixie" while doped-up on morphine.
- Tall, Dark, and Snarky: Yup. He explains early on that he only wears black and grey clothes so that he never has to waste time deciding what to wear.
Gennaro
Donald Gennaro
The lawyer sent by the San Francisco Law Offices of Cowan, Swain & Ross to inspect Jurassic Park and act as general counsel for InGen.- Amoral Attorney: Averted. Gennaro is no saint, and to some degree, he's responsible for the catastrophe, but he's far from being evil.
- Audience Surrogate: Since he's just a lawyer who knows nothing about dinosaurs, a big part of his role in the book is asking questions for one of the experts like Grant or Muldoon to explain to him (and the audience) what's going on.
- Bus Crash: Dies between Jurassic Park and The Lost World from a bout of dysentry.
- Cowardly Lion: While he's clearly afraid when he hears that the raptors escaped, he pulls himself together and goes to help Muldoon to fight them.
- The Everyman: Serves as the "token normal" in the cast.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Variant. Borderline Dirty Coward who continuously whines about the dangerousness of the situation and understandably doesn't wants to risk his life if he doesn't see the need (Grant has to strong-arm him into coming along to find the raptor nests, for example, once the park is back online), but still works on trying to put the park back in function so rescue can be called, and is determined to check the park's functionality with a magnifying glass when he first arrives because he agrees with his firm's beliefs that Hammond is either full of crap or working on very dangerous stuff.
- Only Sane Man: Has his moments.
- Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: He's initially awed by the park, but after the T. Rex breaks out of its paddock and attacks the guests, any thoughts of maintaining the park go out the window and he becomes determined to burn it down, loss of money be damned.
- Took a Level in Badass: Namely, in the part where a Velociraptor pounces on him, and he stands up and flings the bloody beast off him!
Lex
Alexis "Lex" Murphy
John Hammond's granddaughter who accompanies the endorsement team on the tour as a gift due to her parents getting a divorce.- Annoying Younger Sibling: To Tim. She is a whiny and irritating tomboy who is more interested in sports than dinosaurs (in fact, she hates them), and she teases Tim about his love for dinosaurs. (Tim thinks she's being particularly obnoxious because she's upset over the divorce of their parents.)
- Bratty Half-Pint: And how. Not only does she complain all the time (even before things go wrong with the park), she acts as self-righteous or then cries, teases her brother about liking dinosaurs (even going to the point of saying he's not their dad's favorite kid as if it's nothing), and at times disregards Dr. Grant's instructions even after it almost gets her killed.
- The Chew Toy: If something is large and carnivorous, expect her to alert it into attacking her.
- Fluffy Tamer: For some bizarre reason, she is the only one who can approach the young raptor (who she names Clarence) they found. She also befriends a young Triceratops they meet (whom she names Ralph).
- Like Grandfather, Like Granddaughter: There's no doubt that Lex is Hammond's granddaughter as she has inherited all of worst attributes of his personality; they are both self-important, entitled, petulant to the point of throwing tantrums and stomping their feet when they don't get their way, and they both have an inflated opinion of their own knowledge and competence that their actions constantly undermine. They also have a tendency to act thoughtlessly when doing so will put them in mortal danger. Unlike Hammond, Lex sticks to the people around her who will rescue her from her own reckless stupidity.
- The Load: Does not particularly do anything important, aside from a brief Fluffy Tamer moment with a young raptor.
- The Millstone: Also actively hinders Grant and Tim when they're trying to work to save themselves. Aside from constantly screaming and yelling out loud while there are dangerous dinosaurs nearby, she nearly gets them all killed when they're trying to sneak past the sleeping T-rex when she coughs out loud several times. When she and Tim are in the main control room later, she starts playing with a two-way radio which Tim knows they'll need to get help, but Lex refuses to hand it over because she wants to play with it. In general, she whines and acts like an entitled brat, refusing to do what she's told even when everyone's lives depend on it.
- Tomboy: Lex is a big baseball fan and her best relationship is with her father.
- Tomboyish Name: Alexis, while considered to be internationally male, is a popular tomboyish name in America.
- Too Dumb to Live: The reader could be forgiven for assuming that Lex would learn to shut up and do as she's told without whining, arguing, and screaming after the many times she nearly dies because of her own reckless actions. Even after she nearly drowns and dies from a T-rex attack on the jungle river because she couldn't hold in a cough and woke the animal, and then actively taunted the the Rex as it was chasing them, Lex learns absolutely nothing from the experience and continues to find ways to endanger herself, Tim and Grant. Lex's biggest personality flaw is that she is so self-absorbed that several near-death experiences still aren't enough to wake her up to the extremely hostile and dangerous world that's all around her, which will happily and brutally kill her if it gets the chance.
Tim
Timothy "Tim" Murphy
John Hammond's grandson who accompanies the endorsement team on the tour as a gift due to his parents getting a divorce.- Big Brother Instinct: Though he finds Lex annoying, he still tries to protect her when there is danger.
- Hero-Worshipper: He's a huge fan of Dr. Grant.
- In-Series Nickname: Lex calls him Timmy and everyone else calls him Tim.
- Male Gaze: He checks out Ellie's legs.
- Playful Hacker: In addition to his love for dinosaurs, he is also computer-savvy. This becomes useful when the park's computer system needs to be rebooted and all of the adults are busy fending off raptors. In the film, this was given to his sister Lex to prevent her from being The Load like her novel counterpart.
- The Un-Favourite: His backstory regarding his parents, especially his father. The man is a hard-core sports fan and Tim's pursuits are not sports-related (especially his dinosaur obsession-his father flat-out dismisses it as kids' stuff and only gives a token glancing at the exhibits of a museum that they are visiting of a flashback), while Lex is a baseball-loving tomboy. Played with in that not only does Lex, later in the book, assure him that their Dad does love him too, but an earlier scene recounts Tim realizing that the museum they saw a T. rex in had the wrong number of vertebrae in it. Tim's Dad is genuinely impressed that Tim knew that (after checking the facts with the nearest security guard).
Jurassic Park Staff
Hammond
John Hammond
The shady CEO and founder of InGen and creator of Jurassic Park.- Abusive Parents: Or Abusive Grandparent in his case. He is willing to put his grandchildren in danger.
- Asshole Victim: His death is well deserved.
- Bad Boss: Treats his employees with derision when they say what he doesn't want to hear.
- The Barnum: Has shades of this, being mentioned to be very much a showman. His backstory with the flea circus and his tactics to bring sponsors to the Jurassic Park project (which included bringing along a one-of-a-kind and (unknown to the sponsors) highly fragile dog-sized elephant to showcase the wonders of genetic engineering) are good examples.
- Big Bad: He's the main antagonist of the novel thematically, being the CEO of InGen and creator of Jurassic Park. Virtually all of the problems that happen in Jurassic Park can be traced back to Hammond's decisions, from the insistence of displaying "real" (but dangerous) dinosaurs over the safe "domesticated" version to the over reliance of the park's automation system to the inadequate security measures meant to keep visitors safe from the dinosaurs (as well as keeping the dinosaurs from escaping the island, including Muldoon's requests for extra and more powerful weapons). Even Nedry's betrayal that kickstarts the main incident can be linked to Hammond blackmailing him to work overtime on the park's automation program and being underpaid. He is determined to open Jurassic Park one way or another (even after the disaster had made it virtually impossible) in order to make his dream of bringing joy and wonder of dinosaurs to the children of the world... so he can make a profit off of them. If you can't afford it, well... there's nothing he can do.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: And how! The man made Cutting Corners an important part of his plans to create the park: high automation to not have to pay much in personnel costs, short-changing the man who created the automation program, and using a DNA reconstruction process that was bound to create mutations (like making the dinosaurs fertile) but was cheaper in time and money are three examples. He was also not above defrauding investors and using blackmail on employees he had undersold the job to, either. Or potentially endangering people (he vetoed Wu's idea of using just tame, herbivorous dinosaurs for the park, insisting on wanting a "real experience" with the dinos).
- Cutting Corners: Does this all the time because he thinks it will save money. It just causes more problems for him and the people around him.
- Eaten Alive: He is completely paralyzed by Procompsognathus' venom by the end of the book, but is still aware of the compys on top of him nibbling his fingers and neck.
- Entitled Bastard: Hammond genuinely believes he's entitled to play god and recreate dinosaurs and have them act as his puppets for the viewing public, just because he has the means and the vision to make it happen. He feels so entitled that when people confront him with the plain facts that his venture is doomed to fail and is indeed already falling apart all around him, he takes it as a personal attack as if they are actively opposing him and denying him the freedom to do as he wants.
- Fatal Flaw:
- Greed. Hammond was only interested in one thing: making a profit. As such, he didn't care about the technicalities of genetic work, constantly ignored the park's numerous problems, cut far too many corners to avoid spending money and had no qualms about turning to illegal means to get what he wanted such as blackmailing Nedry. He also prioritized his dinosaurs over the well-being and safety of his employees because of how expensive they were.
- Irresponsibility. Hammond constantly took credit for all the hard work his employees did, behaving as if he was the sole reason Jurassic Park would be a masterpiece. However, when problems arose, he never took responsibility for his actions and instead blamed others for them. This left him unable to recognize that most of Jurassic Park's problems were because of his greed and irresponsible leadership.
- Denial. When Hammond was presented with the problems of Jurassic Park, instead of actively addressing them, he kept denying the severity of the situations and claimed he was still in control. Whether it was the dinosaurs' populations increasing drastically, Nedry's sabotage of the security system and the dinosaurs running rampant throughout Isla Nublar, Hammond remained in denial of how severe the situation was. This was done not to assure others that everything was okay, but to assure himself that he was still in control.
- Faux Affably Evil: He can be charming and charismatic, but he's prone to fits of childish rage whenever things don't go his way. He also has a tendency to blame others for his mistakes, treat his employees with derision when they try and tell him what he doesn't want to hear, and he'll happily stoop to blackmail and cost-cutting to get what he wants.
- Friend to All Children: Hammond claims that Jurassic Park was primarily meant for children and that he couldn't wait to see the look on their faces when they see real live dinosaurs for the first time. It's subverted, once it turns out that Hammond only cares about making a profit off the rich and only brought Tim and Lex as means to convince Gennaro from shutting down the park. By the end of the novel, he curses his own grandchildren for being nothing but trouble after he broke his leg fleeing from a recorded T. rex call that Tim and Lex were playing in the control room.
- Hate Sink: If there is anyone who could be blamed for all of the park's failures, it's John Hammond. And Crichton goes out of his way to ensure that he deserves all of it. He's an obnoxious, arrogant, and greedy businessman who only cares about the profits he could make out of Jurassic Park, and the various chapters that focus on his character reveal a sociopath who boasts about never using genetic technology to help mankind and blames all the problems in the park on his employees while taking all the credit for their hard work. Thus, no one would feel bad when the compys attack and devour him alive.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: All of his actions come back to bite him in the ass. To wit:
- His recruitment of Henry Wu leads to the creation of incredibly flawed dinosaurs because Wu doesn't know as much about them as he should and is just as unwilling to admit his mistakes as Hammond is—although, at least Wu knows that making Carnivores was a terrible idea.
- He blackmails Dennis Nedry into creating a massive automated security system for unfairly low pay, leading the understandably embittered Nedry to do a sloppy job out of spite and later attempt corporate espionage for a rival company, shutting down the park and letting the animals escape in the process.
- His decision to rely completely on automated security (because he doesn't want to pay a security team to patrol the island) results in several compys escaping on board a supply boat via the jungle river because it isn't monitored. This leads to several attacks on the mainland, which prompts his investors to demand an inspection of the park to ensure its safety.
- He brings his grandchildren to the island because he thinks their presence will deter Gennaro from ordering the park's destruction. Near the end of the book, they get into the control room and start fooling around, which causes Hammond to suffer a severe leg injury that prevents him from fending off a pack of compys when they attack him.
- Jerkass Has a Point: He does point out that Arnold and Wu's failings (as detailed below) were largely responsible for the downfall of the park.
- Wu's obsession with improving on the creatures he had made, using a reconstruction process that was bound to create mutations, leading to the issue with the dinosaurs breeding in the first place; his anger at Wu when he finds out the dinosaurs are breeding is justified.
- Arnold's worrying about trivial things (such as the gearshifts on the Landcruisers not working) led to serious problems being ignored.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: In stark contrast to the film's version, Hammond comes off as an obnoxious, greedy man who bluntly ignores any criticisms of his park and is quick to blame everyone but himself for any of its shortcomings or problems. His one redeeming quality appears to be his love for his grandchildren, only for it to be revealed the reason he brought them to the island was to use them as emotional blackmail if Gennaro tried to shut down the park. He knowingly put his grandchildren at risk just to keep the money flowing.
- Karmic Death: Dies at the hands (or, rather teeth) of a pack of compys (the first dinosaurs to get off the island, the discovery of which kick-started the plot).
- A Lighter Shade of Black: For how much of a horrible excuse of a human being Hammond is, he does at least seem to have some genuine visionary views on genetics and is clearly distressed watching Ian slowly die under Harding's care, indicating he is capable of empathy for others, though he is still a horribly greedy and shortsighted man. Dodgson, by contrast, doesn't even bat an eye over trying to casually murder Sarah Harding in The Lost World. Somewhat tellingly, while both end up Eaten Alive, Hammond ends up being Peaceful in Death due to the venom of the compies relaxing him, while Dodgson spends his last minutes screaming as the rex hatchlings rip him to pieces.
- Manchild: He throws tantrums and even stomps his feet like a toddler when he's blocked from getting his own way, and especially when his own employees stand up to him and tell him that the park has serious problems that can't just be quickly solved and swept under the carpet.
- Manipulative Bastard: Managed to convince the Costa Rican government, Grant, Sattler, and even his own grandchildren that he was entirely trustworthy. He's not.
- Never My Fault: Near the end of the book, Hammond has a long internal monologue, where he blames everyone except himself for the disaster.
- Amusingly, his excuses for why certain people were at fault grow more and more flimsy as he goes on... but pretty much every single one is valid, which says something about Hammond himself that he hired these massive screw-ups; he knew he could massage their egos enough to turn them into his yes-mennote , he could get some of them cheapnote , and some he honestly believed (at the time) were the best men for the jobnote . Of course, these reasons for hiring them are also the contributing factors towards the park's failure.
- Only in It for the Money: In a conversation with Wu, Hammond outright says that the goal of InGen is to make money above all else.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: The "rules" being the biological and technological drawbacks of the park, some of which are inherent, others by deliberate cost-cutting. Hammond is utterly convinced that he can interpret the reality of the park disaster any way he wants, simply because he's the one writing the cheques. Additionally, Hammond sees all the money that has been invested in his little enterprise as being his money, as if he's purely self-made; he firmly believes that this means he doesn't have to answer to anybody.
- Skewed Priorities: One of his major flaws.
- When Grant provides strong evidence that the dinosaurs are breeding, Wu wants to investigate the matter immediately, but Hammond insists that they have dinner first.
- When everything goes to hell, he shows more concern for the dinosaurs than the people around him.
- He ignores the park's many, many problems in favor of fretting over whether or not he'll live to see (rich) people enjoy it.
- The Sociopath: A charming, manipulative bastard who only sees dinosaurs as a means to make quick, large profits to fill in his pockets. He shows little to no empathy for anyone (even his grandchildren) when they are dying at the jaws of dinosaurs, only concerned about the money and good publicity he would lose out of all this. He's also remarkably short-sighted, cutting corners in the park for short-term profits rather than considering long-term consequences. At the end of the novel, he has shown to learn nothing from this experience, believing that the problems were the result of his employees' incompetence and that he could easily start over on another island nevermind the potential lawsuits and criminal charges he would have faced if he got out of the island alive.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: His poor treatment of Nedry resulted in the latter deactivating the defenses keeping the dinosaurs in their exhibits.
- Villainous BSoD: Has one after everything hits the fan.
- Vast Bureaucracy: Hammond also says he doesn't want to use genetic technology for the benefit of mankind (such as creating better drugs) because that activity is monitored and regulated and restricted by governments to the point where the end product may never even reach the people who need it and there's no real profit margin in it anyway. Genetic technology used in the entertainment industry, however, is not regulated by anyone at all.
- Visionary Villain: Zig-zagged. Whilst he states that his dream is to see the entire world watch in awe at dinosaurs, it's clear he merely plans to make a profit on the rich. He states to Wu during their bungalow dinner conversation that he has already made plans to build Jurassic Park Europe and Jurassic Park Japan shortly after Jurassic Park is open to the public. However, his sinking into depression after everything hits the fan and his discussions with Malcolm after that indicate that some of his vision may have been genuine.
Wu
Dr. Henry Wu
The Chief Geneticist for Jurassic Park.- Asian and Nerdy: As if his last name didn't tip you off.
- Break the Haughty: His ego and sense of always being right are damaged severely when he is given strong evidence that the dinosaurs are breeding, and both are wrecked beyond repair when he is given total confirmation of it, to the point of feeling that everything about the park is called into question.
- Character Development: He starts out rather smug, but when he's forced to accept the fact that the dinosaurs got around his failsafes to keep them from breeding, his arrogance goes out the window.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Not quite as bad as Nedry's, but he's still Eaten Alive.
- Death by Irony: One of the raptors he created eats him.
- Eaten Alive: After being attacked by the raptor, Wu desperately tries to push the raptor's head away from his body not realizing he's already been disemboweled and the raptor is now eating his guts.
- Fatal Flaw:
- Pride. He's so proud of what he has already done for dinosaur cloning, even when he's planning to make improved versions of the dinosaurs, that he refuses to see any possible flaws in his methods unless given concrete proof. And even then, he simply spins his mistakes as correct accidents.
- Skewed Priorities. After discovering the dinosaurs were breeding, instead of realizing the error he had made in their creation, Wu took it as a positive to demonstrate his genetic work. He remains focused on the 'genius' of his genetic work throughout the book rather than admitting that he didn't have control over the dinosaurs until he is killed by Velociraptors.
- Gone Horribly Right: His view of the events. Sure, the dinos are deadly and are breeding, but that means he recreated them successfully, right? Technically, this is true.
- Ignored Expert: Wu knows that the cloned dinosaurs are not really real, merely constructs of one version of the past, and that he could genetically modify them to be slower and docile. He purposes to Hammond that this direction would make the park safer and fit people's expectations of tail-dragging, sluggish reptiles.note Hammond rejects it, believing that the dinosaur clones are "real" and should be "real," completely missing the point altogether.
- Oh, Crap!: He is shocked by the evidence that the dinosaurs are breeding, and is absolutely horrified by the realization that he can no longer deny it.
- Insufferable Genius: Rather smugly shoots down Grant and Malcolm's doubts about the quality of his modifications.
- Mr. Exposition: A role he shares with various other characters regarding the park. His bigger focus is on explaining the science behind dinosaur cloning.
- Never My Fault: Like Arnold, he points out there are mistakes, yet he never admits his role in them.
- Smug Snake: While not necessarily a full-on villain, he repeatedly insists that his genetic modifications to the dinosaurs are infallible, and the way he reacts when Grant points out that the dinosaurs are breeding would have you think that any failure in the system is a completely alien concept to the guy.
- So Proud of You: He won't admit it, but Wu is actually impressed that his creations were able to get around his designs and breed. He concludes this makes them "true" dinosaurs.
- Too Dumb to Live: Wu gets munched by a raptor while standing just outside the wide-open door of the Visitor's Center, yelling for Sattler to get inside. He does this knowing that the building is under siege by raptors at the time. Muldoon's narration privately comments on how stupid he's being, but the raptor beats him to the punch before he can say anything to Wu.
Arnold
John Arnold
The Chief Engineer at Jurassic Park.- Didn't Think This Through: As head engineer of the park it was Arnold's job to know the park systems inside and out, and for the most part he does - he knows in principle that main power doesn't turn back on automatically when the system needs to be fully shut down and restarted, only auxiliary power does. However, since the system has never undergone a full shutdown and restart before, and was in fact never supposed to, Arnold proceeds with the restart assuming that main power is back on because he has always been used to the main power supply being on.
- Eaten Alive: He is pinned down and mauled by a raptor in his attempt to start up the power generator.
- Everyone Has Standards: His backstory was that he used to build nuclear missiles for the Navy, but could no longer stomach doing so after his first child was born.
- Failed a Spot Check: He fails to notice two crucial details following the reboot. One, only the auxiliary power kicked in, not the main generator. Two, with that generator offline, none of the electric fences were energized because there wasn't enough power for them. By the time he does notice, the park is literally seconds away from losing power again and the dinosaurs have potentially had several hours to break out of their paddocks and roam the island freely.
- Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: He is described to be a chain-smoker.
- Mr. Exposition: A role he shares with various other characters regarding the park. His bigger focus is on the systems that run the park.
- Mr. Fixit: His role alongside Nedry, at first. Once Nedry's bug starts to make the park's systems go haywire (and then he dies), most of Arnold's screen time is him trying to make the park work again and be Mission Control to the people on the field.
- Never My Fault: Points out that there are problems, however, denies he has any role in them.
- Tempting Fate: After a couple of tense hours fixing Nedry's sabotage, he declares they've regained control of the park. Then the auxiliary power fails...
- Too Dumb to Live: He might have survived and even saved the day had he not used his shoe as a doorstopper to let a little light in the maintenance shed (because an underground building during a power outage won't have any lights inside). One of the raptors notices the shoe and immediately picks up Arnold's scent inside the building. Arnold thinks he's safe because he's descended a flight of stairs and figures the raptor can't climb down after him, but it simply jumps down to his level and attacks.
Muldoon
Robert Muldoon
A veteran big game hunter working as Jurassic Park's game warden.- The Alcoholic: Yup, he's a notorious one in the park. Which is not helpful when chasing down a T. rex or putting down Velociraptors.
- Awesomeness by Analysis: Thanks to his background as a safari hunter and consultant, Muldoon is able to piece together the scene of an attack with great accuracy. When investigating the aftermath of the T. rex breakout, he deduces that the kids are still alive and have fled with Grant deep into the park contrary to what Gennaro initially believes. He likewise figures out that Dilophosaurus were the ones who got Nedry as opposed to the compys scavenging his corpse, and where Rexy is heading.
- The Cynic: Contrary to the usual character archetype, Muldoon has a very unromantic view of the wildlife and especially the carnivorous dinosaurs. He doesn't admire them as much as he fears them, and he's always worried that the dinosaurs may somehow escape from their cages like the other wild animals he has dealt with in the past.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Several times, likely due to the stress caused by dinosaurs breaking out of their cages and killing the employees.
- Drunken Master: Is an alcoholic, yet he can still take down Velociraptors.
- Great White Hunter: Sort of. He used to be a guide for big game hunters in Africa but went on to work for conservation groups and zoo designers as a wildlife consultant.
- Icy Blue Eyes: He has deep blue eyes and a cold, cynical attitude towards dinosaurs.
- Ignored Expert: As warden of Jurassic Park, Muldoon has been calling for heavier reinforcement and weaponry than what he's been provided, citing how dangerous and unpredictable these dinosaurs could get. Hammond ignores most of these requests and only relents on bringing in one lethal rocket launcher when Muldoon threatens to quit and expose the Jurassic Park project. When Rexy breaks into the Apatosaurus paddock, Muldoon gets to chew Hammond for it. He also notes the problems with the park in that they are dealing with animals that haven't existed for millennia, and thus they know next to nothing about them biologically.
- Manly Facial Hair: Sports a gray steel mustache and is an experienced game warden who takes no shit with dinosaurs or people. He's also one of the few people who can survive raptor attacks, even killing a few of them in the process, a far cry from his film counterpart.
- More Dakka: Muldoon demands this after an incident during construction where one of the raptors got loose, killing two construction workers and fatally maiming a third before it was recaptured, noting from his own experience how difficult it is to bring down animals like elephants in the wild, and that some of the dinosaurs in the park are far larger and infinitely more dangerous.
- Only Sane Man: Out of all the prominent park employees, Muldoon is the one who has the most realistic grasp of the situation at hand. Unlike Wu or Hammond, he is under no illusions about what these dinosaurs, especially the raptors, could do and was the one calling for higher security (for which Hammond only provides the bare essentials). And unlike Arnold, he's physically been through the park and is acutely aware that the security that does happen to be in place can only do so much (especially as it breaks down). The only time when he's not in this mode is when he drinks up till he's drunk during situations like the raptors trying to get in the Safari Lodge. But considering how many people stupidly run to their deaths when it comes to the raptors, perhaps getting drunk is the only sane option.
- Shame If Something Happened: When park management refused his demands for greater firepower on the island to deal with potential problems, Muldoon blackmailed them into a compromise by threatening to quit and take his story to the press.
- Sole Survivor: Of the core Jurassic Park management, he is the only one who makes it out alive. Justified, as he was the only one who correctly anticipated the danger of the animals (especially the raptors) and acted accordingly.
Nedry
Dennis Nedry
A computer programmer from Integrated Computer Systems who is hired by InGen to be the Project Supervisor at Jurassic Park.- Alas, Poor Villain: He might have been responsible for all the subsequent chaos that led to the Park's downfall, but you can't help but feel a bit bad for him for the way he went. Not to mention that his betrayal was a result of legitimate gripes that he had with InGen.
- Asshole Victim: In-Universe. Nobody really feels sorry for him and when Muldoon finds his corpse, he doesn't even bother to pick it up.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: A Dilophosaurus spits poison in his eyes to blind him, spills his intestines out with a slash to his belly, and finally chews through his leg.
- Due to the Dead: Defied. After finding Nedry's body and recovering the rocket launcher he inadvertently made off with, Muldoon leaves Nedry's body to the compys. Unlike Hammond and Malcolm, there's no mention of anyone recovering Nedry's body later, so presumably the parts that weren't picked clean by the compys were incinerated in the firebombing of the island at the end.
- Eaten Alive: Nedry is still alive when the Dilophosaurus spills out his guts and puts its jaws around his head.
- Eye Scream: You know he's not getting out of this alive when the Dilophosaurus spits venom in his eyes, blinding him.
- Fat Bastard: He's a fat, overworked computer programmer for the entire system of Jurassic Park and he deliberately sabotages the system to give himself cover to smuggle the dinosaur embryos to InGen's rival for $1.5 million. The fact that his plan would have put many lives in danger (and opened Nedry to a lawsuit) has never crossed his short-sighted mind.
- Fat Idiot: He's not a complete idiot per se (as he did program the entire Jurassic Park computer system as well as create blackmail material in case his employer Dodgson backs out of paying him), but he is really bad with finances and planning ahead. He took Dodgson's offer of stealing the embryos for $1.5 million, not realizing that the embryos are actually worth $2-10 million. He also didn't take into account the tropical storm affecting visibility on the road, otherwise, he would have chosen a different date to pull off his heist.
- The latter is possibly justified as Nedry's plan hinged on his being physically present on the island (to tackle the long list of bugs in the system) and Hammond and his team being preoccupied with the visitors.
- Fat Slob: Hammond and Arnold both refer to him as this.
- Jerkass: He's quite unfriendly to everyone else working in the park.
- Just Desserts: Is torn apart and devoured by a Dilophosaurus, then, posthumously, a swarm of Procompsognathids.
- Karmic Death: Killed by a dinosaur that would, probably, have not escaped if it were not for his sabotage. When Muldoon and Gennaro find his corpse, Muldoon even remarks: "Maybe there's justice in the world after all."
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: InGen demanded he create a gigantic computer system far more ambitious and time-consuming than any project before and refused to give him the full details of what the system was actually for, leaving Nedry to work in the dark. Inevitably, this leads to glitches and bugs but the company blames Nedry for "poor programming" rather than them not giving him all the necessary details needed to create the system. And top it all off, they refused to pay Nedry extra for all the time it would take untangling the bugs, because from InGen's point of view they were Nedry's fault in the first place. Instead, they began to harass and defame Nedry to his other clients, so Nedry had to go without the overtime for him and the rest of his company if he ever wanted to work again. It's no wonder that he is willing to steal dinosaur embryos and give them to a rival company for a chance at a $1.5 million payday, which he estimates to be 10 years' worth of earnings.
- The Mole: For Lewis Dogdson. It didn't take much for Dodgson to recruit the best inside-man he could have in Jurassic Park at the cheapest price.
- Revenge: He's stealing dino embryos for a rival company because InGen gave him such a hard time when they hired him, such as forcing him to write huge amounts of software without telling him what it was for, demanding software rewrites and patches without paying extra for them, and then blaming all the glitches on him.
- Significant Anagram:
- "Nedry" – "nerdy."
- His full name: "Dennis Nedry" = "Nerdy Sinned".
- Smug Snake: He is a rude fellow and full of himself, believing that he could fix all of the bugs in the Jurassic Park computer system within a weekend only to pale when he saw the full list. He also thinks himself to be a clever planner who thought of every factor in his smuggling operation... except for checking the weather forecast.
- Too Clever by Half:
- His plan to steal the embryos and made sure that Dodgson didn't back off from paying him, even if not high on potential "perfect crime" material, was still pretty clever and would have put an egg on Hammond's and Dodgson's face. Too bad that he got lost en route to the embryo drop-off point...
- He also decides to record his meeting with Dodgson in case he needs to blackmail Dodgson later if the latter doesn't pay the second half of the money he owes Nedry. Dodgson almost certainly would pay without the need for blackmail because he'd already screwed Nedry over: he was only paying Nedry 1.5 million for the embryos while Muldoon estimates they're worth ten times that.
- Villainous Glutton: When he meets Hammond and company for the helicopter trip to Isla Nublar, his fingers are smeared with chocolate and there are bits of candy bar wrappers all over his shirt. He's often seen eating candy bars while on the job in the Jurassic Park control room.
Regis
Ed Regis
The Public Relations Manager for InGen forced into being the tour guide for the endorsement team.- Adapted Out: He was in a few early drafts of the movie's script, but ultimately nixed entirely to reduce the number of actors, with his more unpleasant traits given to the film's version of Gennaro. Although, when Jurassic Park is first shown, an unnamed character who matches Regis's physical description is seen driving a Jeep, something this character would do in the book.
- Alas, Poor Villain: Even though he bailed on them before the T. rex attacked them and was just an all-around jerk to everyone, the Murphy children witness his death at the hands of juvenile T. rex from afar and are horrified at the sight of it.
- Child Hater: He is annoyed at Hammond's insistence that he watch Lex and Tim since he felt that he "wasn't a damn babysitter", and he had more important things to do since he was the publicist of Jurassic Park. However he is professional enough that he never takes it out on the kids, and even plays catch with Lex.
- Dirty Coward: He abandoned Lex and Tim when the Tyrannosaurus rex escaped from its enclosure. In fairness, he does feel ashamed for doing it.
- Everyone Has Standards: Regis is legitimately ashamed of himself for abandoning the kids after the T. rex escaped.
- Heel–Face Door-Slam: After realizing how shameful it was of him to abandon the kids, he tries to go back and see if they are alright... only to then change his mind and subsequently get ripped to shreds by the juvenile T. rex.
- Jerkass: And how! Condescending to everyone during the tour (even to the experts), acts like a smug prick throughout and abandons the kids when the T. rex escapes (though he's later ashamed of this act).
- Jerkass Has a Point: He does at least have a point in that he is the park's publicist and not a tour guide, so however obnoxious he may be, his resentment at having menial tasks forced on him isn't entirely misplaced. He also calls out Grant quite vehemently for manhandling a baby raptor, since at that age they can be quite delicate and essentially die from shock. He's probably thinking more about all the expensive genetic technology that went into making the animal, but he's quite right that Grant has no right to perform a full, rough, uncaring physical on it just because he's curious.
- Screams Like a Little Girl: He does this in his final moments of life right before he’s turned into dinner for the juvenile T. rex.
Others
Guitierrez
Dr. Martin 'Marty' Guitierrez
An American biologist living in Costa Rica.- Adapted Out: Has the dubious distinction of being the only character to appear in both books but none of the films, since the discovery of the compy remains is absent.
- Decoy Protagonist: One of two during the first act of the novel. Disappears completely once the narrative changes to the other characters and reappears near the end of the epilogue wanting to talk to Grant about the events on the park and the possibility that various raptors had managed to "migrate" out of it and into the depths of the Costa Rican jungle.
- Mr. Exposition: Several times.
Dodgson
Dr. Lewis Dodgson
The ruthless and humorless head of research at Biosyn, who is known for his law-breaking studies and being in charge of corporate espionage for the company.- Big Bad: Of The Lost World (1995).
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: More so than Hammond, who was at least mildly benevolent.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Getting eaten by dinosaurs is expected, but Dodgson's demise is drawn out to emphasize the horror he's facing in his last moments of life. He gets his leg chomped by an adult Tyrannosaurus, but rather than eating him, he takes Dodgson to its nest where a trio of baby T. rexes are eagerly waiting to have their first hunt. The moment he is let go, Dodgson can only scream in panic and agony as the tyrannosaur infants have a go in taking as many bites as they can on the man. It takes a while before Dodgson finally expires.
- Cutting Corners: Dodgson promises to pay Nedry $50,000 for each species of dinosaur embryo he delivers to Biosyn, and another $50,000 for each one that's viable. Since Jurassic Park has 15 species, Nedry can make up to $1.5 million — but Wu later estimates the stolen embryos are actually worth between $2 million and $10 million.
- Eaten Alive: After being thrown into the Tyrannosaurus nest, Dodgson is devoured alive by three T. rex infants. The first infant clamps down on his leg with its jaws; the second leaps on his midriff and goes for the waist; and the third (the infant with the cast leg) tears a good chunk of his flesh from his face. Mercifully, the next bite is around his neck.
- Foil: To Hammond, both being greedy and ambitious businessmen who have no qualms resorting to underhanded methods in order to gain more profit for themselves. The difference is that while Hammond is a Villain with Good Publicity who hides his nastiness beneath a grandfatherly veneer, Dodgson has garnered himself a shady reputation and acts as ruthless as he is made out to be. While Hammond primarily relies on his employees to handle the nuts and bolts of Jurassic Park, Dodgson doesn't hesitate to get his hands dirty, which includes attempted murder.
- Faux Affably Evil: Unlike Hammond, any politeness he shows is definitely a facade.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Though he's the reason why Nedry sabotages the park to get the embryos, he disappears from the first novel altogether after his meeting with Nedry and doesn't return until the sequel novel, The Lost World (1995).
- Just Desserts: He doesn't just get killed, he's mauled alive by the baby tyrannosaurs who take turns at biting him as part of their first hunt, and Dodgson doesn't immediately die from it, having to go through a lot of pain and screaming before he loses his life.
- Karma Houdini: In the first book, though he lost out on his investment, he's never busted for his role in the disaster.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: His luck of survival and facing no repercussions finally expires in The Lost World at the jaws of a tyrannosaur family.
- Karmic Death: In The Lost World. When he and some minions try to steal T. rex eggs, they break a baby T. rex's leg. Malcolm's team ends up putting the baby's leg in a cast. At the end of the novel, Dodgson gets his leg broken by the baby's parents who are teaching it to kill its own prey. He also attempts to murder Sarah Harding by pushing off her a boat to drown her, and when later both are reunited by hiding under a car from a T. rex, she pushes him out to get grabbed by it leading to his above fate.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: After realizing that most of his crew are killed during his expedition to Isla Sorna, Dodgson realizes that he's not going to be successful and might as well leave the island. That said, he isn't very successful on that end either.
- Lack of Empathy: He really couldn't less about any of his subordinates or the people that were killed by his experimental rabies. Even when his group starts being picked apart in Isla Sorna, Dodgson's complaints are only about how their loss contributes to the hindrance and eventual failure of his goals.
- Mad Scientist: We are given exposition that explains he invented a variation of rabies that was airborne (allegedly useable as an airborne vaccine) and he unleashed it on some unsuspecting townspeople in Chile for testing purposes (which he was not authorized to do, by the way) just to prove it worked. It caused an epidemic instead and his involvement in the plot of both books is him trying to do something to prevent being put on the chopping block.
- The Man Behind the Man: To Nedry, being the one who convinced Nedry to try stealing dinosaur embryos and awarding him with a large sum of cash once he's convinced that Nedry is being overworked with little-to-no extra pay.
- Manipulative Bastard: Look at his previous projects (rabies tests, genetically engineered potato)and wonder why he is still in business. He also manipulated a number of scientists into working for his benefit and was the one who convinced Nedry to get back at InGen if he wants to be given a large sum of money.
- Meaningful Name: He is a dodgy person.
- Not That Kind of Doctor: Exaggerated. We eventually are given an exposition that says he never even earned a doctorate. A lot of his success relies on him stealing ideas from others and altering them just enough to avoid potential lawsuits.
- Plagiarism in Fiction: If Dodgson isn't stealing employees from rival companies for Biosyn, he's instead stealing their ideas. He then makes his own modifications to ensure that his products would be sufficiently different from the original so as to avoid potential lawsuits.
- Shout-Out: His name is clearly a portmanteau of the real name and pen name of 19th-century mathematician/author Charles Dodgson/Lewis Carroll, but it has no significance beyond that, apart from the possible pun on "dodgy".
- The Sociopath: Dodgson is willing to do anything for a profit, including unleashing airborne rabies on unsuspecting people, plagiarizing other people's works, hiring people to steal work from rivals (and paying them short of the work's actual value), and murdering people when they inconvenient him. He never accepts responsibility for his actions, and only restrains himself if it threatens his career at Biosyn. It says something when Hammond comes across as more benevolent despite being also a sociopath, mainly because his visions don't deliberately put people in harm's way.
- Viler New Villain: As bad as Hammond is, Dodgson proves to be much worse than him. While they are responsible for most of the problems that happen in the novels, Hammond is disturbingly lax about the situation of Jurassic Park and wants to pursue his goal, even if several have died for it and it's virtually impossible at this point. Dodgson, on the other hand, is more direct about stealing dinosaur eggs and embryos and is not above directly killing anybody if it suits his purpose. Not to mention Hammond's desire of a dinosaur theme park was somewhat genuine, if very warped and twisted, whereas Dodgson was a criminal before his involvement with Biosyn and sticks to just that. Not to mention Dodgson had already killed 10 people before the first book.
- Would Hit a Girl: He once tries to shove Sarah out of a congested vehicle when a T. rex is near them, hoping that the dinosaur would see and eat her first and sparing himself the benefit of having to invest his time in cooperating with someone in order to survive.
- Would Hurt a Child: Some of the victims of Dodgson's experimental rabies infection happened to be children.
- Writers Cannot Do Math: He's stated to be thirty-four years old in the first book. But in The Lost World which takes place six years after Jurassic Park, he's stated to be forty-five (five years older than he should be).
Carter
Dr. Roberta "Bobby" Carter
An American doctor in Costa Rica who treats the first known victim of the dinosaurs.- Decoy Protagonist: She's the pov character of the first chapter but afterward disappears from the story.
Ross
Daniel Ross
Donald Gennaro's boss at the San Fransico Law Offices of Cowan, Swain & Ross who is seriously reconsidering their investment in John Hammond's latest project.- Honest Corporate Executive: Ross orders Gennaro to pull the plug on the operation and destroy the dinosaurs if there's any sign that they're hurting people.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: Ross has a lot of money invested in the park but is prepared to sacrifice it rather than attach himself to a dangerous and/or doomed venture.
- Properly Paranoid: He's worried that Hammond is either lying or wrong about none of the dinosaurs escaping and he's absolutely correct to feel this way.
The Bowmans
Mike, Ellen and Christina "Tina" Bowman
A family from Texas who encounter an escaped dinosaur on vacation and provide one of the first eyewitness descriptions.- Adorably Precocious Child: Tina is portrayed as a nice little kid eager to draw animals for a school project, although she is capable of recognizing a joke directed at her and pretends not to hear her mother calling her to put on suntan lotion.
- Cosmetic Horror: Ellen is described as being unhealthily obsessed with unnecessary plastic surgery in the first place and (unknown to her husband) first wanted to come to Costa Rica for another operation.
- Free-Range Children: Tina is allowed to wander off a beach by herself and is bitten by a dinosaur she finds.
- Hyper-Awareness: Tina has a good memory for details of appearance. She is able to give a very good description of the dinosaur that bit her. While her doctor initially thinks it must be a normal lizard, she remembered some details wrong about he reconsiders after she notices that he's wearing a different shirt but the same tie the second time he visits the family.
- The World Is Just Awesome: Mike is deeply impressed by the jungles and parks of Costa Rica.
Morris
Bob Morris
An EPA agent who interviews Grant about some odd purchases made by Hammond.- Nice Guy: He's upfront about his suspicions and respectful throughout his visit.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: He's correct you think there's something odd and shady behind all the amber Hammond is buying for the park but he's wrong about why.
Levin
Alice Levin
A lab tech associated with Grant and Ellie and the first person to suggest dinosaurs in regards to the Costa Rica incidents.- Accidental Misnaming: she calls a T. rex a teeny-soarus. This undermines her credibility a bit.
- Agent Mulder: She seems quick to believe in something impossible.
Dinosaurs
Velociraptor
See Velociraptor
Tyrannosaurus rex
See Tyrannosaurus
Procompsognathus
Procompsognathus
Dinosaurs that lived during the Late Triassic Period, about 222 to 219 million years ago.- Family-Unfriendly Death: Their second on-page appearance involves gruesomely eating a newborn baby's face. By the time the nurse even opens the door, the baby is quite dead.
- In-Series Nickname: Compys.
- Karmic Death: They deliver this to Hammond.
- Killer Rabbit: Tiny and cute, but also deadly.
- Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Double subverted. The little girl who encounters one of them in the prologue is not scared of it at all, in fact, she finds it adorable and thinks it would make a great pet. Then it bites her...
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: Though the fact that they kill people and
like to eat fecal matter mitigates this somewhat. - Road Apples: Their job in the park is to clean these up. How? Well how do you think?
- Small Role, Big Impact: They're not very prominent, but their discovery pretty much kick-starts the story's plot.
- Toxic Dinosaur: They have a venomous bite that can cause the victim to fall into a trance-like state, utterly helpless yet calm. It is this bite that makes the compys so deadly despite their small size, as they can go after much larger and live prey like humans.
- Zerg Rush: Not as much as the film though since they have a venomous bite to make their hunt easier.
Dilophosaurus
Dilophosaurus
One of the largest carnivorous dinosaurs of the Early Jurassic Period.- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: Described as having leopard-like spots and brightly colored, parrot-like heads.
- Ambiguous Situation: Grant and the kids encounter a pair of Dilophosaurus performing what seems to be a mating ritual, with one of them having a duller red crest than the other. The problem is that Dilophosaurus are not among the dinosaur species that have Frog DNA, which is how those dinosaurs were able to change sex and breed. Is it really a mating ritual or did life find another way for this pair?
- Artistic License – Biology: It having a venomous bite and the ability to spit venom is supposed to illustrate how little fossils alone can tell us about a dinosaur. But this specific example doesn't work, since venomous snakes (especially spitting cobras) have syringe-like fangs for spitting venom and injecting it into their prey with maximum efficiency, while Dilophosaurus and other theropods lacked such fangs. A more basic varanid-like venomous bite would be (comparatively) more believable, since varanids have blade-like teeth similar to those of carnivorous theropods (though still fictitious).
- Artistic License – Paleontology: Downplayed compared to the film adaptation. The novel's Dilophosaurus are the same size as the real dinosaur, and the tour guide mentions they have weak jaw muscles, which is accurate to what paleontologists believed at the time.note Most conspicuously, they do not have the neck frill that the movie version has. They're still venomous, though; mainly for Rule of Scary and to illustrate a point of just how little fossils can tell us about a dinosaur.
- Bright Is Not Good: They are among the most colorful dinosaurs in the park, having yellow skin and black spots along with a striped red crest. They are also among the deadliest dinosaurs due to their unique venomous spit and ability to tear their prey to shreds while they're still alive.Richard Kiley: Along with such living reptiles as Gila monsters and rattlesnakes, Dilophosaurus secretes a hematotoxin from glands in its mouth. Unconsciousness follows within minutes of a bite. The dinosaur will then finish the victim off at its leisure-making Dilophosaurus a beautiful but deadly addition to the animals you see here at Jurassic Park.
- Eye Scream: How they disable their prey before the kill.
- Failed a Spot Check: The park staff didn't realize the dinosaurs were venomous until they were observed hunting indigenous rodents on the islands, and no one knew they could spit venom until a keeper was nearly blinded. After that incident, park management tried to have the venom glands removed, but couldn't find them despite two rounds of surgery, and management refused to kill one of the creatures to allow an autopsy to be performed.
- Nothing Is Scarier: Nedry gets permanently blinded by the venom of Dilophosaurus and the novel describes his death from his perspective. He could sense the Dilophosaurus coming to finish him off through sound, smell, and touch, but his inability to see renders him helpless to ward off any attack.
- Karmic Death: Delivers one to Nedry when he got lost in the park that he deactivated.
- Ominous Owl: While it's not an owl per se, it has a distinct soft hooting cry like an owl. Considering what a Dilophosaurus can do to a person, this is often a dangerous omen.
- Poison Is Corrosive: Their venomous saliva (which can kill large rodents with a single bite) is also corrosive, able to burn skin and eyes.
- Super Spit: It spits venom and said spit can reach its target at a distance of 50 feet.
- Toxic Dinosaur: Their ability to spit venom, as well as the fact the venom can cause permanent blindness and even death, is why the river cruise attraction was indefinitely delayed. The fact that the park management could not find the poisonous sacks without euthanizing one of the specimens (which horrified InGen due to the expensive nature of the clone) highlights the inherent dangers of short-sighted decisions with dinosaurs they have very little understanding of.
Stegosaurus
Stegosaurus
Dinosaurs that roamed the open plains of the Late Jurassic Period in what is now North America.- Beware My Stinger Tail: Her thagomizer, though she doesn't use it that much beyond warding off a juvenile T. rex.
- Sole Survivor: By the end of the novel, only one Stegosaurus had survived. A few hours later, she perishes along with the other dinosaurs from the Costa Rican Air Force's napalm bombings.
Cearadactylus
Cearadactylus
A pterosaur that lived in the Early Cretaceous Santana Formation of Brazil.- Adapted Out: Spielberg states that the aviary scene was too expensive and complex to put to film. It was later
refitted for the third film, though the Cearadactylus were replaced by Pteranodons. - All Flyers Are Birds: Referred to as such (they aren't actually) and have grasping talons that no real-life pterosaur has.
- Death from Above: Played with; they attack Grant and the kids, but it's entirely for naturalistic reasons (they're territorial).
- Giant Flyer: As pterosaurs, this is to be expected. Especially since the aviary's frame is big enough for normal birds to fly out.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: They're viciously territorial, which is the reason the little hotel that was meant to be built in the aviary had to be canceled.
- Kidnapping Bird of Prey: Subverted. One of them attempts to do this to Lex, but she can't because Lex is too heavy for her to lift.
- No Name Given: An odd variant. The Park's various technical and promotional lists never refer to them by their species name, and instead, call them "pterosaurs" and "pterodactyls". Their species is acknowledged by both Grant and Arnold, however. This might be due to the fact that they're an obscure species and the Park management decided that people would be more familiar with the term "pterodactyl".
- Terror-dactyl: Viciously territorial airborne predators. They're also erroneously referred to as "dinosaurs" and "birds".
