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Pterosaurs
Pterosaurs in general
- Animals Not to Scale: To varying degrees, all of them are portrayed as larger than they should be in size and wingspan.
- Artistic License – Paleontology:
- Many of them lack pycnofibers or possess far too little.
- Despite their portrayals in the films in reality they were incapable of carrying much less flying with the weight of a human.
- Are depicted with hands separate from the wing and grasping feetnote .
- Their wings end in sharp pointed tips
rather than having a tiny blunting at the end of the wingtip. - Their wings that fold in with hands facing forward when they should fold in with their hands rotating backward, as well as wing membranes that connect at the end of the hip rather than to the ankle.
- They take off by jumping instead of vaulting with their wings, although the latter behavior is shown in Dominion.
- Death from Above: Being capable of flight, would you expect anything else?
- Hair-Trigger Temper: All the pterosaurs in the series apart from the one that closes out The Lost World are highly aggressive and territorial.
- Interspecies Friendship: The ending of Dominion shows them migrating alongside a flock of modern birds.
- Terror-dactyl: Apart from the Pteranodon in The Lost World note , all of them are shown to be vicious, hostile animals that attack humans with little to no provocation. They are all extremely inaccurate (with the exception of the Quetzalcoatlus) both in their appearance, lacking most of their pycnofibers, having leathery wings and grasping feet, and their behavior, which is way too bird-like.
Dimorphodon
Dimorphodon
Appearances: Jurassic World | Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous | Jurassic World Dominion
"The Dimorphodon is a snap-feeder, with quick jaws suited to snatching fish and insects."
— Jurassic World website
A species of pterosaur bred for Jurassic World that lives in the Aviary alongside the larger Pteranodon.
- Alas, Poor Villain: "Villain" is probably too strong a word, but it's hard not to feel sorry for one of them when it's callously shot out of the air by one of Hoskins' mercenaries.
- Animals Not to Scale: Downplayed; their wingspans are twice as big as the real animal, according to supplementary materialnote .
- Jurassic World Dominion changes them to be closer to the size of the real animal, to the point one can easily sit on one's hand on its hind legs.
- Artistic License – Paleontology:
- They should have two different types of teeth in their mouths instead of one type of tooth as depicted in Jurassic World. Their skulls are are depicted with a boxy tyrannosaur-like shape instead of rounded as on the real animal. They are also shown to be quite powerful flyers when the real animal was a poor flyer.
- While they are portrayed with pycnofibres, they should be covered completely in them rather than only having them on the back.
- The ones in Camp Cretaceous not only lack pycnofibres but also possess a claw at the end of their wing finger, something that wasn't present even in the films.
- They should have two different types of teeth in their mouths instead of one type of tooth as depicted in Jurassic World. Their skulls are are depicted with a boxy tyrannosaur-like shape instead of rounded as on the real animal
- The Bus Came Back: After being physically absent in Fallen Kingdom, Dimorphodon makes a return in both Camp Cretaceous and Dominion.
- Canon Immigrant: Dimorphodon has appeared in several Jurassic Park games before debuting in Jurassic World.
- Expy: Their role seems to amount to being flying versions of the Compsognathus.
- Flying Flightless Bird: Downplayed, as real-life Dimorphodons still could fly, but they were likely not very good at it, due to their short wings and heavy bodies, and thus they probably couldn't cover as much ground as the Dimorphodons in the film do.
- Fragile Speedster: Like their Pteranodon compatriots, the Dimorphodons are built for flying and quite agile, but they lack proper defenses beyond that, making it easy to simply tranq them out of the sky.
- Glass Cannon: They can attack in superior numbers and are stronger than they look, but their only real defenses are flying and biting.
- Historical Badass Upgrade: The real-life Dimorphodon was a poor flyer that spent much of its time on the ground and only took to the air in emergencies. Here, they are Death from Above.
- Historical Villain Upgrade: The real-life Dimorphodon was also a harmless creature that was content to grub around in the dirt for bugs or hunt small animals in the trees or on the ground. Here, it's depicted as a tiny little flying demon.
- Killer Rabbit: Smaller than Pteranodon, but still deadly.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: Even an aggressive parent Dimorphodon knows it's wiser to back off when Bumpy gets in between it and Darius and Ben.
- Mama Bear: If you walk into their nesting ground, the entire flock will come straight for you.
- Mass "Oh, Crap!": The flock flees from the Aviary after the I. rex shows up.
- Non-Malicious Monster: Along with the Pteranodon, they descend upon Main Street after being frightened by the I. rex from the Aviary.
- Papa Wolf: If you walk into their nesting ground, the entire flock will come straight for you.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: One of them can briefly be seen lifting a grown man off the ground (though it drops him shortly afterward) and another manages to knock Owen down with surprising ease.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When they see the Indominus rex crashing into their Aviary, their first response is to get out of there as fast as they can.
- Shown Their Work: In contrast to Pteranodon, they are correctly portrayed with pycnofibres.
- The Swarm: They descend on terrified tourists in one of these.
- Terror-dactyl: It's a dragon-like monstrosity (as opposed to the more elegant real pterosaurs) with a tyrannosaur-like skull.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Inexplicably missing in Fallen Kingdom, meaning it's unknown if any of them survived its events. However, Dominion confirms they survived and spread throughout the world.
- Zerg Rush: After the I. rex scares them and their Pteranodon neighbors out of the Aviary, they vent their frustrations out on terrified tourists on Main Street en masse. Unlike the Pteranodons, there isn't real-life evidence to suggest that Dimorphodons hunted in groups.
Quetzalcoatlus
Quetzalcoatlus
Appearances: Jurassic World Dominion
Owen: That's another plane, right?
Kayla: Not exactly.
Kayla: Not exactly.
Gigantic pterosaurs, far larger than the previously-introduced Pteranodon.
- Ambiguous Situation: In the opening of Dominion at least two specimens are shown to be out in the wild and nesting in the New York skyline, how they ended up there is unknown since it’s unclear wether Jurassic World housed Quetzalcoatlus and these two were among the rescued dinosaurs that were released from Lockwood manor or they somehow got past the Aerial Deterrent System at the Biosyn sanctuary and flew all the way from Italy.
- Animals Not to Scale: While the ones in the prologue are to scale, the cloned individual is absolutely humongous, with its head alone being as long if not longer than the entire cockpit of a sizable plane. That said, an official scale chart for the film shows it closer in size to the real animal, so it's possible the plane attack shot is a particularly egregious case of Your Size May Vary. Promotional material◊ states Quetzalcoatlus had a wingspan of up to 20 metres, but most modern size estimates consider 11 metres to be the maximum from known fossils.note
- Beak Attack: The prologue has one of them nipping at a Pteranodon to claim a carcass for itself. The film shows another one using its beak to wreck the plane that Owen, Claire, and Kayla are in.
- Canon Immigrant: Quetzalcoatlus has appeared in several Jurassic Park games and toylines before debuting in Dominion.
- Giant Flyer: Naturally given their sheer size. In the prologue they make the Pteranodon (which had been the largest pterosaur in the films until now) look comparatively puny. Truth in Television, as they really were that big. The cloned individual is as large as the plane it's attacking.
- Historical Badass Upgrade: While mostly accurate, it is still unreasonably stronger and far more aggressive than its real-life counterpart, which was essentially a giraffe-sized stork hunting proportionally small prey. It arguably behaves more like its more massively built relative Hatzegopteryx, and even the latter probably wouldn't be able to destroy a fair-sized airplane in mid-flight.
- Light Is Not Good: The cloned one has white fur, a bright yellow beak, and a blue head crest. It is also first seen attacking a plane that Owen, Claire, and Kayla are in.
- Long Neck: Quetzalcoatlus has one of the longest necks of any known pterosaur, only contested by Arambourgiana.
- Remember the New Guy?: Quetzalcoatlus was never seen or mentioned in any of the films prior to Dominion, but it's treated as though they had always been present, with one of the opening scenes and promotional material establishing them as having made their way to cities across North America.
- Shown Their Work: It is depicted as a terrestrial, quadrupedal hunter with pycnofibres, the correct head design, proportionally small and non-grasping plantigrade feet, and small fingers pointing the right way. It may be the most accurate animal of the franchise so far, aside from the size of the cloned specimens.
- Small Role, Big Impact: The cloned individual has only a few seconds of screentime, but by damaging Kayla's plane, it traps Owen, Claire, and Kayla in the sanctuary and forces Claire to be separated from the group.
- Your Size May Vary: One scene depicts a pair of them nesting atop the World Trade Center, and together they seem to be as large as the entire top of the building. Given the 200-foot diameter of the skyscraper, this would put their wingspan at over 100 feet, 35 feet longer than the official size estimate.
Pteranodons
Jurassic Park III Pteranodons
Jurassic Park III Pteranodons
Appearances: Jurassic Park III
Grant: It's a bird cage.
Amanda: For what?
Amanda: For what?
A roost of pterosaurs bred for Jurassic Park that live within a gigantic birdcage on Isla Sorna. The flock would accidentally be released when the Kirby rescue party stumbled into their aviary, allowing them to migrate to Canada where they would be shot down by a team of mercenaries led by Vic Hoskins.
- Adaptational Badass: In the aviary scene in the original book, the pterosaurs of Jurassic Park still had grasping talons but were too weak to lift Lex (a small child). Here, they're capable of carrying full-grown adults to their doom.
- Adaptation Species Change: In the books, Jurassic Park had no Pteranodons. The park's token pterosaurs were Cearadactylus (erroneously referred to as "Cearadactyls").
- Advertised Extra: Despite being highly advertised, to the point of being on the logo and poster, they appear only for the aviary scene and at the very end.
- All Flyers Are Birds: They're depicted nesting and caring for flightless chicks like birds (most pterosaurs are believed to have given minimal parental care and were likely capable of flying soon after hatching), grasping objects with their feet (pterosaurs had flat feet like humans and were poorly suited to grasping), and even live in a gigantic aviary.
- Animal Gender-Bender: All of them have huge crests on their heads, even though in real life only male Pteranodons had large crests. Yet again, it could just be a manipulation of their DNA on InGen's part to make the female Pteranodons appear more formidable and eye-catching to potential park-goers.
- Artistic License – Paleontology: While reasonably accurate for the time they lacked the upturned beak the species are known for and possessed teeth in their beaks despite their name "toothless wing" referencing their lack of teeth. They are also far larger than any known specimen.
- Beak Attack: Their toothed beaks are their deadliest weapons.
- Breakout Villain: Moreso than the Spinosaurus even, but much less polarizing to the audience. One appears as a shadow on the main poster, and they also appear over the palm trees at the bottom of III's logo, marking a lot of JP logos first.note
- Continuity Snarl: The Lost World depicted Pteranodon living freely on Isla Sorna, but it's never mentioned what differentiates them from the caged population in the sequel. note
- Death Glare: One of them gives this to Grant.
- Giant Flyer: About the only accurate thing about them is their massive wingspans.
- Historical Badass Upgrade: Much stronger and scarier than the real animal.
- Historical Villain Upgrade: The real-life Pteranodon was about as dangerous as a super-sized pelican (though then again...), but these individuals are depicted as vicious human-killing predators.
- Kidnapping Bird of Prey: Poor Eric.
- Killer Rabbit: The babies. They're so cute! And oh so deadly...
- Mama Bear: These Pteranodons are fiercely protective of their nests and babies.
- Non-Malicious Monster: Much like Rexy in the first film, the Pteranodons were only attacking the group because they were hungry and/or wanted to protect their turf.
- Ominous Walk: The first one we see does this after landing on the bridge Eric was standing on. Amusingly, an animal known for its flying prowess is introduced by walking menacingly.
- Riding into the Sunset: They fly away over the ocean away from the island at the end of the third film. Promotional material for the next film reveals that Hoskins shot them down.
- Shown Their Work: Unlike the Pteranodon from The Lost World that perched on a tree like a bird◊, this one is correctly depicted as quadrupedal.
- Toothy Bird: While many pterosaurs had teeth, Pteranodon (whose name means "toothless wing") was not one of them.
- Zerg Rush: The babies attack in this way.
Jurassic World Pteranodons
Jurassic World Pteranodon
Appearances: Jurassic World | Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom | Jurassic World: Battle at Big Rock | Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous | Jurassic World Dominion
"Pteranodon have three clawed fingers on each hand, and four clawed toes on each foot."
— Jurassic World website
Another variant of the famous pterosaur Pteranodon bred for Jurassic World and housed in an enormous aviary in Jurassic World, at the end of the Cretaceous River Cruise. After the fall of the park and the island's volcano began to erupt, many were captured and released into the wilds of California.
- Anachronistic Animal: The prologue of Dominion shows Pteranodon living 65 million years ago, even though the genus became extinct 85 million years ago.
- Animal Gender-Bender: An aversion; it has been confirmed that all the Jurassic World Pteranodon that had been seen on-screen prior to Dominion are female, and they do have the short crests that only the females possess. They are still too big for female Pteranodon though (they are as big as the males when they should be smaller).
- Animal Jingoism: One of them carries on the grand tradition of pterosaurs being eaten by giant sea reptiles.
- Animals Not to Scale: It's the right size for a Pteranodon... if they were males. In reality, female Pteranodon were only about half the size of the males. Averted with the prehistoric specimens in the Dominion prologue, which are accurately sized for female Pteranodons judging by their scale compared to Quetzalcoatlus.
- Artistic License – Paleontology: Possess significantly smaller heads in proportion to their bodies than the Pteranodons in Jurassic Park III, when Pteranodon is known for having heads larger than their bodies.
- Beak Attack: They can use their beaks to stab their victims.
- Bizarre Sexual Dimorphism: Downplayed. The male Pteranodon possess the large distinctive crest, while the females have much shorter crests. This is true for pteranodontids and other crested pterosaurs in real life.
- Fragile Speedster: Despite their large size, a single tranquilizer dart can knock them out of the sky. The reason they're difficult to take out is partly that they're capable of flight and thus very mobile and maneuverable, and partly because they attack in massive numbers.
- Giant Flyer: Pteranodon have a big wingspan and they are slightly larger than a full-grown human.
- Glass Cannon: They're powerful flyers and strong enough to hoist a human into the air, but they can be taken down by a single tranquilizer dart.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Stated to have a high Aggression Index. The I. rex uses this to her advantage by scaring them into a frenzy and more or less sending them to attack Masrani's helicopter. Once they arrive at the park center, they start indiscriminately divebombing the crowds unprovoked.
- Historical Badass Upgrade: Just like the previous film, they're stronger and scarier than real Pteranodons.
- Historical Villain Upgrade: While real-life Pteranodons were pelican-like fish eaters, these are eagle-like predators.
- I Am Not Left-Handed: A sort of meta case. The film seems to take a brief sigh of relief after Zara escapes one of the Pteranodons in the lagoon. Then she learns that they can swim...
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Their modus operandi, as two unfortunate ACU troopers learn the hard way. Throughout their attack on Main Street, they can be seen pinning hapless people down and pecking at them with their long, spear-like beaks. One shot also focuses on a tranquilized Pteranodon coming dangerously close to stabbing Zach and Gray during the Main Street attack.
- Kick The Son Of A Bitch: They kill one of Daniel Kon's goons offscreen.
- Kidnapping Bird of Prey: One almost grants Zara the dubious honor of being the first human female to die in a Jurassic Park film, only to have its thunder stolen by the Mosasaurus. Another one tries to do this to a baby Triceratops and presumably some of the kids in the petting zoo.
- Mass "Oh, Crap!": The flock flees from the Aviary after the I. rex shows up. Given what the I. rex actually is, can you really blame them?
- Misplaced Wildlife: They're shown inhabiting a jungle-themed aviary with dense tree cover despite fossil evidence indicating Pteranodon (adults at least) were seagoing animals similar to albatrosses. The Cretaceous prologue to Dominion similarly shows them inhabiting a floodplain alongside Dreadnoughtus and Quetzalcoatlus, despite pteranodontids in Real Life having preferred vastly different habitats to both azhdarchids and titanosaurian sauropods.
- Monster Munch: The one that was killing Zara becomes this for the Mosasaurus.
- Non-Malicious Monster: Though they collectively kill more people than any other creature in Jurassic World, they only act out of maddened instinct after the I. rex frightens them out of the Aviary.
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: They have a red, grey, and tan color scheme and act as minor antagonists.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When they see the Indominus rex crashing into their Aviary, their first response is to get out of there as fast as they can.
- Shown Their Work: They are correctly depicted as quadrupedal and possess upturned beaks, unlike the ones in the Jurassic Park films. They are also significantly smaller than the ones in Jurassic Park III, making them more size accurate. They are also capable of diving and swimming, and the females lack large crests.
- Swallowed Whole: The one that was eaten by the Mosasaurus can be seen feebly trying to flap its wings afterward, implying that it was still alive after being chomped.
- Would Hurt a Child: A swarm of them attacks the Gentle Giants Petting Zoo and one attempts to carry off a baby Triceratops. Fortunately for the little dino, it proves to be too heavy for the Pteranodon to carry.
- You Don't Look Like You: For the third time in the on-screen franchise, they are given a drastic redesign. Justified in that these Pteranodons are most likely a new batch of clones.
- Zerg Rush: After the I. rex scares them and their Dimorphodon neighbors out of the Aviary, they vent their frustrations out on terrified tourists on Main Street en masse. Somewhat Truth in Television, as there is good evidence to suggest that Pteranodons were fairly gregarious creatures (though they'd probably not attack people in such large numbers).
Marine Reptiles
Marine reptiles in general
- Never Smile at a Crocodile: They tend to lunge out of the water in a manner similar to that of crocodilians.
- Sea Monster: These aquatic reptiles have a tendency of being hostile towards anything that approaches them.
Mosasaurus
Mosasaurus
"She's a little shy, so be nice and give her a hand when she comes out."
Appearances: Jurassic World | Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom | Jurassic World: Battle at Big Rock | Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous | Jurassic World Dominion
"The Mosasaurus was thought to have hunted near the surface of the water... where it preyed on anything it could sink its teeth into. Including turtles, large fish, even smaller Mosasaurus."
— Staff Member
A sea lizard (a true lizard since she's related to Komodo dragons, but she's not a dinosaur) bred for Jurassic World and kept within the park's lagoon where she was fed sharks. During the fall of the park, she would kill and eat the rampaging Indominus rex responsible for the incident, leaving her trapped in her lagoon until a group of mercenaries came to retrieve the hybrid's remains and accidentally left a gate to the habitat open, allowing the Mosasaurus to escape into the world's oceans.
- Accidental Hero: When you get right down to it, she doesn't know the I. rex is the villain, she was just hungry after not being fed since lunchtime.
- Her predatory instincts ended up unintentionally saving Darius in the Camp Cretaceous episode Beneath The Surface when she ate a shark that was about to attack him.
- Accidental Murder: "Murder" might be too strong a word (she is an animal without a concept of good or evil, after all), but her devouring Zara could be seen as this, as she was clearly aiming for the Pteranodon.
- All-Powerful Bystander: It is the biggest and strongest creature in the park, even more so than the Indominus. However, given her Crippling Overspecialization and Non-Malicious Monster statuses, she mostly just keeps to herself until the Indominus eventually gets too close to her lagoon during the Final Battle.
- Always a Bigger Fish: As part of the feeding show: In an aquatic exhibit surrounding a lagoon, a deceased great white shark hangs from a revolving rail towards the lagoon. She's an impressive size, which all but extenuates the enormity of the Mosasaurus, who promptly lunges out of the water and eats the whole shark in two bites (whatever was left fell from the rail into the water). Later becomes this to a Pteranodon. Then she receives one very large midnight snack when the I. rex, who is pushed close to the lagoon's edge by Blue and the T. rex during the climactic battle, comes within munching reach.
- Animal Jingoism: Surprise surprise, she likes the taste of pterosaur meat.
- Animals Not to Scale: Mixed with Your Size May Vary, as the Mosasaurus seemed to change size from scene to scene.
- In Jurassic World, it's portrayed as being over 60 feet long, but most modern scientific estimates suggest the largest Mosasaurus were no more than 50 feet long (there are a few estimates suggesting lengths closer to 60 feet, but they're considered highly contentious due to the lack of clear methodology). She's introduced engulfing a whole great white shark (which averages around 12 to 20 feet long) in her jaws, but no known Mosasaurus fossil has jaws even six feet long. According to an interview with the SFX director, they intentionally ballooned the Mosasaurus more than the twice the length of the real animal (therefore larger even than a blue whale) to make her look more intimidating.
- Played straight at the beginning of the sequel, where she seems to have ballooned up to around eight times her original size. For reference, a roughly 40 to 60-foot long helicopter is the same size as her head, meaning her whole body must be over 120 to 200 feet long! Then she seemingly shrinks to her original size in the end.note
- Camp Cretaceous, though, shows the scene in a different perspective, with the helicopter appearing to be around Rexy's size and the Mosasaurus appearing much smaller, so it's possible that forced perspective was at play in the sequel.
- Promotional and supplementary materials for Fallen Kingdom state that Mosasaurus is between 70 and 90 feet long, but there has never been any size estimate for any mosasaur species that is over 60 feet.
- In Jurassic World, it's portrayed as being over 60 feet long, but most modern scientific estimates suggest the largest Mosasaurus were no more than 50 feet long (there are a few estimates suggesting lengths closer to 60 feet, but they're considered highly contentious due to the lack of clear methodology). She's introduced engulfing a whole great white shark (which averages around 12 to 20 feet long) in her jaws, but no known Mosasaurus fossil has jaws even six feet long. According to an interview with the SFX director
- Artistic License – Paleontology: She's depicted with rows of spiky, crocodile-like scutes running down her back and lipless crocodilian-like jaws that there is no evidence for, lacks the forked tongue real mosasaurs are thought to have had, has a much less pronounced tail fluke, and is much, much larger than any actual known species.
- Big Damn Heroes: Lands the finishing blow on the Indominus rex at the end of the final battle.
- The Big Guy: She is the biggest animal to appear in the franchise.
- The Cameo: During the end credits for Jurassic World: Battle at Big Rock, she's seen snatching a breaching great white shark out of the air, presumably off of the coast of South Africa.
- Canon Immigrant: Mosasaurus has been featured in numerous video games based on the franchise. Though the last time Isla Nublar had a mosasaur it was a Tylosaurus.
- Chekhov's Gunman: She ends up delivering the fatal blow to the I. rex.
- Crippling Overspecialization: She's a powerful creature, the largest carnivore in the park, but she's also confined to her lagoon, and as far as she can jump out of the water.
- The Dreaded: It goes with being the apex predator of the ocean. In Camp Cretaceous: Hidden Adventure, Rexy pursues the campers to the lagoon stadium, but upon noticing the Mosasaurus lurking in the nearby waters, she abandons her hunt and hastily leaves, remembering what happened to the Indominus.
- Dynamic Entry: The only kind of entry she can make.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Has a high Aggression Index. Unlike the other animals with such indexes, however, the film does little to demonstrate this.
- Interspecies Friendship: The ending of Dominion shows the Mosasaurus swimming peacefully alongside a pod of humpback whales. Additionally, the tie-in Dino-Tracker website notes that she cooperates with orca pods to hunt great white sharks.
- Kaiju: Had a growth spurt between World and Fallen Kingdom, placing her squarely in this category.
- More Teeth than the Osmond Family: She even has teeth on her palate!
- Never Smile at a Crocodile: Although a giant sea lizard, she has crocodile-like jaws and several rows of spines on her back that her real-life equivalent probably didn't have.
- Non-Malicious Monster: She more or less acted the way any large aquatic predator in a tank would if something foreign fell in or was hanging over her tank. Though her aggression is labeled as being "high", she is not considered to be a threat to the tourists. While she is seen attacking humans and boats in the sequels, she is gentle towards whales.
- Reality Is Unrealistic: Real mosasaurs are believed to probably have had forked tongues (by comparison with its closest living relatives, snakes, monitor lizards, and Gila monsters, and examining the structure of the jaws), but here is given an unforked one because, in the words of one of the effects supervisors, it made her "more believable".note
- Sea Monster:
- She's a 60-foot-long monster that eats great white sharks for lunch. Subverted, though, as she seems relatively tame (or at least enough to be trusted with a stadium full of people) and her handler is perfectly capable of standing on a platform above her tank without worrying about being eaten. Indeed, she only causes one known human casualty, and only by accident. As well as this, it is shown that she can reach the humans on the bank, as she does it for the I. rex. It seems that, as long as she's regularly fed, she has no interest in munching the humans, who are much smaller than a shark and probably wouldn't fill her up.
- Played straight in Fallen Kingdom, with the now escaped Mosasaurus actively hunting surfers off the coastline.
- Shown Their Work: While still having many inaccuracies, she has the beginnings of a fluke on her tail and an extra set of teeth on her palate.
- Single Specimen Species: It is the first and only known cloned member of it’s kind in the franchise.
- Stealthy Colossus: In the opening scene of Fallen Kingdom, she manages to creep up on the small submarine and close her jaws on it without the men inside noticing her.
- Stock Sound Effect: Her vocalizations have noticeable whale songs in them, to emphasize the fact that she's a marine animal and thus distinguishes her from the land-dwelling animals.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Camp Cretaceous reveals that the Indominus rex carcass is in pieces, while Fallen Kingdom reveals that the Indominus rex's rib cage is upside down, but the head is not (which it would be if it fell while attached to the body). Presumably, this means that the Mosasaurus tore off the head by snapping the Indominus' neck while drowning it, possibly by performing a death roll as a crocodile would.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Great white sharks seem to be her favorite snack.
- Your Size May Vary: While slightly oversized in Jurassic World, in Fallen Kingdom she's suddenly gargantuan for no discernible reason. Though Camp Cretaceous shows that it was likely just a matter of cheated perspective, given that she is more appropriately sized in the series' version of Fallen Kingdom's events.
Nothosaurus
Nothosaurus
Appearances: Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous
A marine reptile from the Triassic period bred by Mantah Corp on their island.
- Always a Bigger Fish: After the kids ger her out of the sewers and into the swamp biome, they are threatened by a Dilophosaurus. The Nothosaurus immediately goes on the offensive and grabs the Dilophosaurus by the neck and tackles it into the water.
- Artistic License – Paleontology: The Nothosaurus in Camp Cretaceous is depicted running on land like a crocodile and rearing on its hind legs like an otter, while the real animal had completely transitioned into an aquatic lifestyle with flippered feet. The teeth were also not nearly as long and crazed-looking as the animal in the show.
- Canon Immigrant: Nothosaurus has only appeared in one Jurassic Park game before making its official debut in Camp Cretaceous.
- Long Neck: As the Triassic cousin of Plesiosaurus and Elasmosaurus, the Nothosaurus has a relatively long neck compared to the rest of its body.
- Never Smile at a Crocodile: It swims and stalks its prey like a crocodile.
- Scary Teeth: Its teeth are long like needles and sharp as knives.
- Sea Monster: Although it is much smaller than the Mosasaurus, the Nothosaurus is highly aggressive towards the campers on land and in water.
- Sewer Gator: It spends most of its life prowling the sewers of Mantah Corp's island before the campers relocate it to the Swamp Biome.
- Single Specimen Species: It is the first and only known cloned member of it’s kind in the franchise.
Synapsids
Synapsids in General
- Last Episode, New Character: Both Dimetrodon and Lystrosaurus make their appearance in the final film of the Jurassic World trilogy while Smilodon only appeared in the interquel Netflix series Camp Cretaceous.
- Token Minority: They're the few prehistoric creatures in the franchise aside from the games to not be dinosaurs, pterosaurs, or mosasaurs.
Dimetrodon
Dimetrodon
Appearances: Jurassic World Dominion
A sail-backed synapsid from the early Permian period cloned by Biosyn.
- Artistic License – Paleontology: It is depicted with a neck that is a bit too long, crocodile-like scutes and scaly skin when it should have possessed smooth, glandular skin, somewhat comparable to hippo skinnote , and is given a boxy, tyrannosaur-like skull. The tips of its spines should also not be covered in the sail, being exposed for a few inches at least.
- Breaking Old Trends: Dimetrodon is the first Permian animal and the first Paleozoic animal to appear in the franchise.note
- Canon Immigrant: Before Jurassic World Dominion, Dimetrodon had only appeared in some of the franchise's video games and toy lines.
- Creepy Cave: Inhabit one of these and eat anyone who enters it.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Dimetrodon first appeared in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom as a statue displayed in Lockwood Estate.
- Hell Is That Noise: Their roars are high-pitched, human-like screams completely overwhelm the scene during their chase.
- Mighty Glacier: They don't move all that quickly, and their short legs probably prevent them from doing so. They still give the humans trouble due to ambushing them in a narrow mine tunnel and being strong enough to shove aside minecarts.
- Red Is Violent: The color of their sails is primarily red and they are especially hostile towards other species.
- Shark Fin of Doom: The sail of the Dimetrodon juts out of the water surface like a shark's fin when it is submerged.
- Shown Their Work: It is correctly depicted with semi-erect legs, rather than dragging its belly. Its cave-dwelling nature may be based on new studies that it may have been nocturnal (thus, it probably wouldn't use its sail as thermoregulation as traditionally believed). Additionally, its swimming habits are at least reasonable, since it lived in wetland areas and is known from fossils to have eaten the bizarre amphibian Diplocaulus.
- Uncanny Valley: Not that their appearance is upsetting to look at, but their noises as seen above with Hell Is That Noise.
- Token Minority: It is currently the only exclusively-Paleozoic animal to appear canonically in the franchise.note
Lystrosaurus
Lystrosaurus
Appearances: Jurassic World Dominion
A small dicynodont from the early Triassic period. It was cloned for animal fights in the Amber Clave Market.
- Artistic License – Paleontology: The Lystrosaurus is depicted with a ridge along the back of its head, making it resemble a primitive/baby ceratopsian. This probably was not present or was at least much less noticeable in the real animal, as this area would've served as an attachment point for the neck muscles.
- Breaking Old Trends: Lystrosaurus is the first animal from the Triassic period to appear canonically in the films of the franchise as well as the first prehistoric mammal to be featured in the films proper. However, Herrerasaurus was in Jurassic Park: The Game, and the novels featured Procompsognathus in place of the films' Compsognathus.
- Canon Foreigner: Dominion is the official debut of Lystrosaurus in the franchise.
- Herbivores Are Friendly: Averted thanks to the nature of the Amber Clave Market. While it's unknown how Lystrosaurus would have behaved in the wild or even in better care, the Lystrosaurus in the Amber Clave Market are bred to be animal fighters, with an extended scene showing one individual decapitating a larger Oviraptor with a single bite. Naturally, they are aggressive and wouldn't hesitate to bite humans as Delacourt finds out the hard way.
- Killer Rabbit: Small, herbivorous, and a burrower; it literally is a reasonably close Triassic equivalent to a rabbit. One specimen unwittingly helps Owen by biting Delacourt's arm and thrashing around, keeping him pinned with a similar effort by a juvenile Carnotaurus before a juvenile Baryonyx goes for Delacourt's face. An extended scene has it decapitating a larger Oviraptor in a fight with a single bite.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Lystrosaurus is about the size of a ferret and it is able to pin Delacourt down by locking its jaws around his hand with a juvenile Carnotaurus doing likewise with the other hand, allowing a juvenile Baryonyx to move in for the kill. An extended scene has it decapitating a larger Oviraptor in a fight with a single bite.
- Remember the New Guy?: Lystrosaurus was never seen or mentioned in any media in the franchise prior to Dominion, but the story treats it as though they had always been present, with multiple individuals already being sold in the dinosaur black market.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: These little guys almost resemble furless voles with tusks.
- Shown Their Work: It has hair and naked skin, as part of its close relationship with mammals.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Several Lystrosaurus were kept within the Amber Clave Market, but it's unknown what happened to them and the other prehistoric wildlife after the market fell into chaos.
Smilodon
Smilodon
Appearances: Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous
A Pleistocene feline with saber-like teeth bred by Mantah Corp on their island. One would menace a group of Jurassic World survivors. They then encountered it a second time (possibly the same individual) before it was killed by the Spinosaurus.
- Always a Bigger Fish: It gets eaten by the Spinosaurus while hunting the campers.
- Ambiguous Situation: Was there more than one Smilodon on Mantah Corp's island, or did the campers run into the same one both times?
- Artistic License – Paleontology: Its head has a closer resemblance to a Pantherine (or big cat) rather than a Machariodont, the saber-toothed cat's extinct subfamily—potentially justified, as per Jurassic Park tradition this specimen probably had an incomplete genetic sequence, and the gaps were filled in using DNA from its closest living relatives, modern-day cats. They are incorrectly called saber-toothed tigers despite the fact that big cats (lions, tigers, and leopards) are not more closely related to the saber-toothed cats than domestic house cats, extant felines are all more closely related to each other than to the saber-toothed cats.
- Breaking Old Trends: Smilodon is the first prehistoric non-Mesozoic animal and the first prehistoric mammal to appear in the franchise.
- Canon Immigrant: A new prehistoric species that has never appeared in any of the films. That being said, it's been popping up in newer video games for the series, such as Jurassic Park Builder, Jurassic World: The Game, and Jurassic World Alive.
- Cats Are Mean: It is a menace to the campers until it meets its end in the jaws of the Spinosaurus.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Smilodon first appeared in Jurassic Park as a toy in the Gallimimus Gift Shop and then in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom as a skull displayed in Lockwood Estate.
- Panthera Awesome: It greatly resembles a tiger with huge fangs, a short tail, and an even more powerful build.
- Single Specimen Species: It was the first and only known cloned member of it’s kind in the franchise. After being killed by the Spinosaurus it has presumably fallen back into extinction.
- Token Minority: In more ways than one. It is currently the only Pleistocene animal and the only prehistoric mammal to appear canonically in the franchise.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Has two scenes and was only given the spotlight for a single episode before being killed by the Spinosaurus.
Insects
Locusts
Locusts
Appearances: Jurassic World Dominion
An unnamed species of large prehistoric locust from the Cretaceous period. They were bred by Biosyn to cause a famine, destroying all crops not made by Biosyn.
- Apocalypse How: Caused a destructive plague on a regional scale, since they were only able to affect a few regions before they were ultimately stopped, but it's made very clear that if they weren't they could have very easily caused a global ecological collapse and threatened to extinct humanity.
- Artistic License – Paleontology: A big one; the locusts are completely made-up. No such thing as foot-long, prehistoric locusts have ever been documented to have existed in any time period, never mind the Cretaceous from which locusts are absent.note
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: Modern locusts are a little over 2 inches long in size; these are about a foot in length.
- Fiery Cover-Up: Once it's clear to Dodgson his scheme with the locusts will be revealed, Dodgson orders the incineration of the ones in the lab to destroy the evidence. The still-burning bugs break out and end up lighting the forest outside on fire, forcing the dinosaurs to be brought inside the Biosyn facility.
- Flight: Unsurprisingly, they can fly.
- Godzilla Threshold: Unlike with the other prehistoric creatures in Dominion, no one even remotely entertains the idea of coexisting with these locusts, with everyone who encounters them advocating for their destruction. Considering that they are instinct-driven super-locusts that could threaten the entire biospherenote , this is a completely understandable response.
- Gone Horribly Right: An extended scene reveals that the locusts were originally designed to spread genetic modifications to non-Biosyn crops that would allow them to become immune to drought, frosts, and diseases. However, since they are engineered to not feed on Biosyn seeds, they start to eat every other plant in sight. They are also indicated to be far more resilient and destructive than Wu or Dodgson planned, potentially destroying the entire planet's food supply instead of merely crippling the competition like Dodgson intended. The locusts aren't even Dodgson's master plan, either; they're just a side project he cooked up for some extra revenue while trying to find Maisie so he can corner the healthcare market by extracting the means to cure genetic diseases from her DNA.
- Good Colors, Evil Colors: The locust Wu releases to destroy the swarm at the end is white, whereas the rest are black. Justified in that locusts actually start out with light color patterns and only develop their black markings when swarming.
- Hungry Menace: What makes them so dangerous — while the other resurrected species are a threat to humans, they're intelligent enough to adapt their behaviors, which means they can eventually learn to coexist with us (and us them). The locusts, however, are driven entirely by instinct and hunger, meaning they're impossible to reason with or adapt to — they'll just eat everyone and everything until they starve, regardless of how many others go down with them.
- Irony: In a franchise where the sequels keep bringing bigger and badder carnivores, the biggest prehistoric threat to the world is ironically the smallest prehistoric herbivore introduced, simply because they eat the crops that humans and livestock depend on to survive.
- Living Weapon: They are engineered to eliminate every crop that is not grown from Biosyn seed.
- Made of Iron: They've been genetically altered to be stronger and later on in Dominion a swarm of them were set on fire and were able to survive long enough to break out of containment and cause a forest fire in the Biosyn Sanctuary.
- Non-Malicious Monster: Played for Drama — the locusts lack the intelligence to comprehend morality, but it also makes coexisting with them impossible, as they are instinctually driven to eat regardless of other factors and incapable of adapting their behavior to coexist with other life forms.
- Prehistoric Monster: They have DNA strains from the Cretaceous period, making them huge and ugly, and are ironically far more destructive than any carnivorous dinosaur could ever be. If there's any prehistoric creature that could cause a mass extinction event, it's these locusts.
- The Swarm: Genetically modified giant locusts from Biosyn that eat every plant except Biosyn's patented crops, unleashed across the globe to hold the world at ransom. This swarm causes more destruction than the dinosaurs could ever hope to achieve, simply because they could indirectly kill billions of people through starvation (and that's not considering the biodiversity collapse in the wild).
- Zerg Rush: When one of the locusts feels threatened, it lets out a distress call that signals the rest of the swarm to come to its aid.
