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Science of Jurassic World: The Dinosaur Facts Behind the Films
A tale of some of the most amazing creatures ever to grace this tiny planet—unearth how the science fiction of the Jurassic World franchise inspired the evolution of dinosaur science.
It all began in 1993. Jurassic Park was a movie landmark in the development of computer-generated imagery and animatronic visual effects. Jurassic Park became the highest-grossing movie of that year, and the highest-grossing film ever at the time, a record held until the 1997 release of Titanic. The field of dinosaur science has blossomed by leaps and bounds and branched out in recent years, in no small part to this iconic movie series.
In The Science of Jurassic World, we experience the amazing story of the birth of the dinosaurs, how they evolved to world dominance, how some became gargantuan in size, how others grew wings and flew, and how the rest of them met an untimely end. Chapters include:
How did Jurassic Park transform dinosaur science?
Was Dr. Alan Grant’s job a walk in the park?
What’s with the giant dinosaur poop?
When will we clone dinosaurs?
And so much more!
Discover how some of cinema’s most incredible creations do justice to the jaw-dropping evolution of these fantastic creatures.
It all began in 1993. Jurassic Park was a movie landmark in the development of computer-generated imagery and animatronic visual effects. Jurassic Park became the highest-grossing movie of that year, and the highest-grossing film ever at the time, a record held until the 1997 release of Titanic. The field of dinosaur science has blossomed by leaps and bounds and branched out in recent years, in no small part to this iconic movie series.
In The Science of Jurassic World, we experience the amazing story of the birth of the dinosaurs, how they evolved to world dominance, how some became gargantuan in size, how others grew wings and flew, and how the rest of them met an untimely end. Chapters include:
How did Jurassic Park transform dinosaur science?
Was Dr. Alan Grant’s job a walk in the park?
What’s with the giant dinosaur poop?
When will we clone dinosaurs?
And so much more!
Discover how some of cinema’s most incredible creations do justice to the jaw-dropping evolution of these fantastic creatures.
264 pages, Paperback
First published June 15, 2021
24 people are currently reading
107 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
August 21, 2021
Cool way to talk about dinosaurs, through going through a famous movie. I like the concept a lot and will most likely read more like it
November 4, 2025
Do better. Try harder ( www.amazon.com/review/R1F54C0NMFRP5H/... ): 2/5
I was originally looking forward to reviewing Brake/Chase's "The Science of Jurassic World: The Dinosaur Facts Behind the Films" (henceforth TS). I enjoy a good "science of", hence my many reviews of day-in-the-life dino books (Most recently: www.goodreads.com/review/show/5592564589 ), & had heard good things about the series. In fact, I thought TS would be even better than DeSalle/Lindley's "The Science Of Jurassic Park & The Lost World" (preferably, the audiobook), given how much dino-related knowledge & access to it has increased since 1997.* Unfortunately, TS reminds me more of the "Life on Our Planet" series (henceforth LoOP). In this review, I list the 3 main reasons why that is.
1) Unlike DeSalle/Lindley's book (which thanks "David Grimaldi, Dennis Finnin, Mick Ellison, and Edward Heck for the illustrations, and[...]Mark Norell for advice and information"), TS lacks expert consulting (which, as indicated by my You review, there's no excuse for: www.goodreads.com/review/show/3515814498 ) & any illustrations.
2) Similar to LoOP, the 1st half of TS is only "tangentially related to" JP/JW (See the TV Tropes quote). This is especially apparent in "What Was the Great Dinosaur Rush?" ( https://archive.ph/58Abw ), "Jurassic Backdrop: Continents and Tectonics" ( https://archive.ph/FYKuT ), & "How Did Dinosaurs Get So Big?". The latter is especially noteworthy: JP/JW has so many "whimsically beautiful[...]sauropod moments" ( https://thatguywiththeglasses.fandom.... ), any of which could've been used to address a broader range of topics; Instead, "How Did[...]?" describes JP's architecture, compares it to "the Great Hall of Dinosaurs at Yale’s Peabody Museum", describes Zallinger's "The Age of Reptiles" up to the sauropods, & then answers the title question by rehashing Chapter 3 of Brusatte's "The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs".
3) Similar to LoOP, the 2nd half of TS is full of weird text & writing. Put another way, "it’s trying to make us feel the hugeness of what’s happening with words. But if [TS] was less concerned with constantly reinforcing how incredible everything is, it could have found room to be more informative" ( https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-ra... ). This is especially apparent in "Meet the Jurassic Family: At Home with the Tyrannosaurs" & "Was T. Rex King of the Jurassic World?":
-In reference to writing, the mostly uncapitalized genus names are especially annoying to see in the quotes of experts like Black (then Switek: https://archive.ph/EjKgt ) & Bakker (See the Brake/Chase quote). There's also the incorrectly pluralized genus names (E.g. "A Snarl of Tyrannosauruses"), the repetition/hyperbole (E.g. "Meet the[...]" ends with "The gargantuan head. The ripped frame", while "Was T. Rex[...]?" begins with "The enormous signature head and jaws. The ripped frame"), & the seemingly-random references (E.g. Stethacanthus in the Kileskus link below).
-In reference to text, the Kileskus section is especially misleading/wrong ( https://archive.ph/p1da7 ). In 1 paragraph alone, it's claimed that Kileskus "weighed little more than 100 pounds" (More like 15x that), that it "was roughly seven or eight feet long" (More like twice that), that it "would have come up to your waist" (if your waist is 1.85 m: https://archive.ph/RnAVk ), & that "its predatory position in the environment would have been something like a wolf or a jackal" (Those are 2 very different positions: https://archive.ph/L8aQU ).
-In reference to both, "Meet the[...]" & "Was T. Rex[...]?" each use some form of the phrase "the Tyrannosaurs[...ruled...]the Jurassic world in the last 20 million years of the dinosaurs’ dominion" multiple times, which is not only repetitive/hyperbolic, but also misleading/wrong (I.e. It synonymizes "Jurassic" with "Mesozoic").
In short, I recommend listening to DeSalle/Lindley's audiobook in conjunction with 1) Naish/Barrett's "Dinosaurs: How They Lived and Evolved" (which I reviewed: www.goodreads.com/review/show/3505614509 ), & 2) Kinoshita's "Dinosaur Sanctuary" (which I reviewed: www.goodreads.com/review/show/8042687845 ). 1 more thing of note: I think that "Fallen Kingdom: How Would Trump’s America Deal with the Escaped Dinosaurs?" is the best part of TS; Despite being the shortest chapter/discussion of real dino science, "Fallen[...]?" is the most relevant to both JP/JW (I.e. Unlike Dominion, it's all about "the big culmination[...]after the huge cliffhanger of dinosaurs roaming the Earth in Fallen Kingdom": https://archive.ph/McHwk ) & science in everyday life (I.e. It's based closely on Trump's response to COVID-19); On a related note, 1 Amazon Reviewer complained for TS to "leave politics out" despite the fact that Fallen Kingdom is similarly political (E.g. See the Trump references in the whimsical link above); TS just takes the politics to their logical conclusion.
*In reference to "preferably", there are several editing/writing errors throughout the print version. Also, the audiobook is more concise/less daunting.
Quoting TV Tropes ( https://web.archive.org/web/202503092... ): "Despite being heavily marketed as a documentary series focused on the history of life on Earth, with dinosaurs and other ancient life at the forefront of trailers, posters, intro, and supplementary material, roughly 75% of the footage is of the modern day. In most cases, it's just used to restate a fact already noted in regards to a prehistoric creature or habitat and using a present day example that's tangentially related to this fact (such as showing Deinonychus pack-hunting, and then showing a fight between ants and termites, just because ants and termites are also social animals, or showing an early prehistoric amphibian, then showing different clips of various modern amphibian species, just to remind the audience what an amphibian is), and the present day footage will run much longer than the prehistoric era footage."
Quoting Brake/Chase (See 149/249: https://web.archive.org/web/202402160... ): "As Robert Bakker wrote in his 1986 book,The Dinosaur Heresies, “The scene has been portrayed in paintings, drawings, and illustrations hundreds of times, but it remains thrilling. Tyrannosaurus, the greatest dinosaur toreador, confronts triceratops, the greatest set of dinosaur horns.” According to Bakker, “No matchup between predator and prey has ever been more dramatic.” In his view, it was very apt that “those two massive antagonists lived out their co-evolutionary belligerence through the very last days of the very last epoch in the Age of Dinosaurs.” Singing the praises of tyrannosaurus, Bakker claimed that “no predatory dinosaur, no predatory land animal of any sort, had more powerful jaws.” And Bakker saw two ways of withstanding a tyrannosaurus’s attack: “either tank-like armor—the approach taken by ankylosaurus—or the most powerful defensive weapons—the approach taken by triceratops.”"
I was originally looking forward to reviewing Brake/Chase's "The Science of Jurassic World: The Dinosaur Facts Behind the Films" (henceforth TS). I enjoy a good "science of", hence my many reviews of day-in-the-life dino books (Most recently: www.goodreads.com/review/show/5592564589 ), & had heard good things about the series. In fact, I thought TS would be even better than DeSalle/Lindley's "The Science Of Jurassic Park & The Lost World" (preferably, the audiobook), given how much dino-related knowledge & access to it has increased since 1997.* Unfortunately, TS reminds me more of the "Life on Our Planet" series (henceforth LoOP). In this review, I list the 3 main reasons why that is.
1) Unlike DeSalle/Lindley's book (which thanks "David Grimaldi, Dennis Finnin, Mick Ellison, and Edward Heck for the illustrations, and[...]Mark Norell for advice and information"), TS lacks expert consulting (which, as indicated by my You review, there's no excuse for: www.goodreads.com/review/show/3515814498 ) & any illustrations.
2) Similar to LoOP, the 1st half of TS is only "tangentially related to" JP/JW (See the TV Tropes quote). This is especially apparent in "What Was the Great Dinosaur Rush?" ( https://archive.ph/58Abw ), "Jurassic Backdrop: Continents and Tectonics" ( https://archive.ph/FYKuT ), & "How Did Dinosaurs Get So Big?". The latter is especially noteworthy: JP/JW has so many "whimsically beautiful[...]sauropod moments" ( https://thatguywiththeglasses.fandom.... ), any of which could've been used to address a broader range of topics; Instead, "How Did[...]?" describes JP's architecture, compares it to "the Great Hall of Dinosaurs at Yale’s Peabody Museum", describes Zallinger's "The Age of Reptiles" up to the sauropods, & then answers the title question by rehashing Chapter 3 of Brusatte's "The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs".
3) Similar to LoOP, the 2nd half of TS is full of weird text & writing. Put another way, "it’s trying to make us feel the hugeness of what’s happening with words. But if [TS] was less concerned with constantly reinforcing how incredible everything is, it could have found room to be more informative" ( https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-ra... ). This is especially apparent in "Meet the Jurassic Family: At Home with the Tyrannosaurs" & "Was T. Rex King of the Jurassic World?":
-In reference to writing, the mostly uncapitalized genus names are especially annoying to see in the quotes of experts like Black (then Switek: https://archive.ph/EjKgt ) & Bakker (See the Brake/Chase quote). There's also the incorrectly pluralized genus names (E.g. "A Snarl of Tyrannosauruses"), the repetition/hyperbole (E.g. "Meet the[...]" ends with "The gargantuan head. The ripped frame", while "Was T. Rex[...]?" begins with "The enormous signature head and jaws. The ripped frame"), & the seemingly-random references (E.g. Stethacanthus in the Kileskus link below).
-In reference to text, the Kileskus section is especially misleading/wrong ( https://archive.ph/p1da7 ). In 1 paragraph alone, it's claimed that Kileskus "weighed little more than 100 pounds" (More like 15x that), that it "was roughly seven or eight feet long" (More like twice that), that it "would have come up to your waist" (if your waist is 1.85 m: https://archive.ph/RnAVk ), & that "its predatory position in the environment would have been something like a wolf or a jackal" (Those are 2 very different positions: https://archive.ph/L8aQU ).
-In reference to both, "Meet the[...]" & "Was T. Rex[...]?" each use some form of the phrase "the Tyrannosaurs[...ruled...]the Jurassic world in the last 20 million years of the dinosaurs’ dominion" multiple times, which is not only repetitive/hyperbolic, but also misleading/wrong (I.e. It synonymizes "Jurassic" with "Mesozoic").
In short, I recommend listening to DeSalle/Lindley's audiobook in conjunction with 1) Naish/Barrett's "Dinosaurs: How They Lived and Evolved" (which I reviewed: www.goodreads.com/review/show/3505614509 ), & 2) Kinoshita's "Dinosaur Sanctuary" (which I reviewed: www.goodreads.com/review/show/8042687845 ). 1 more thing of note: I think that "Fallen Kingdom: How Would Trump’s America Deal with the Escaped Dinosaurs?" is the best part of TS; Despite being the shortest chapter/discussion of real dino science, "Fallen[...]?" is the most relevant to both JP/JW (I.e. Unlike Dominion, it's all about "the big culmination[...]after the huge cliffhanger of dinosaurs roaming the Earth in Fallen Kingdom": https://archive.ph/McHwk ) & science in everyday life (I.e. It's based closely on Trump's response to COVID-19); On a related note, 1 Amazon Reviewer complained for TS to "leave politics out" despite the fact that Fallen Kingdom is similarly political (E.g. See the Trump references in the whimsical link above); TS just takes the politics to their logical conclusion.
*In reference to "preferably", there are several editing/writing errors throughout the print version. Also, the audiobook is more concise/less daunting.
Quoting TV Tropes ( https://web.archive.org/web/202503092... ): "Despite being heavily marketed as a documentary series focused on the history of life on Earth, with dinosaurs and other ancient life at the forefront of trailers, posters, intro, and supplementary material, roughly 75% of the footage is of the modern day. In most cases, it's just used to restate a fact already noted in regards to a prehistoric creature or habitat and using a present day example that's tangentially related to this fact (such as showing Deinonychus pack-hunting, and then showing a fight between ants and termites, just because ants and termites are also social animals, or showing an early prehistoric amphibian, then showing different clips of various modern amphibian species, just to remind the audience what an amphibian is), and the present day footage will run much longer than the prehistoric era footage."
Quoting Brake/Chase (See 149/249: https://web.archive.org/web/202402160... ): "As Robert Bakker wrote in his 1986 book,The Dinosaur Heresies, “The scene has been portrayed in paintings, drawings, and illustrations hundreds of times, but it remains thrilling. Tyrannosaurus, the greatest dinosaur toreador, confronts triceratops, the greatest set of dinosaur horns.” According to Bakker, “No matchup between predator and prey has ever been more dramatic.” In his view, it was very apt that “those two massive antagonists lived out their co-evolutionary belligerence through the very last days of the very last epoch in the Age of Dinosaurs.” Singing the praises of tyrannosaurus, Bakker claimed that “no predatory dinosaur, no predatory land animal of any sort, had more powerful jaws.” And Bakker saw two ways of withstanding a tyrannosaurus’s attack: “either tank-like armor—the approach taken by ankylosaurus—or the most powerful defensive weapons—the approach taken by triceratops.”"
January 6, 2025
A fantastic book for all Jurassic Park fans, which busts every myth with science, in a
easy-to-read language
easy-to-read language
July 25, 2021
This book was interesting and I liked it, but I didn't love it. I don't think I'll pick up the other books in the series. Harry Potter would have been the most likely for me, but I don't like the idea of science breaking down the magic of that series (especially if they focus on the movies rather than the books).
We learn the science behind some of the things we see in the Jurassic Park franchise, like the reality of cloning an animal from millions years old DNA (impossible due to DNA's half-life), the life of a real paleontologist, and things I couldn't have cared less about, like how tall a Triceratops poop pile would be (based on the scene in the first movie). This last one was the only chapter that I guiltlessly skipped partway through.
This book was oddly written at times and had a lot of sentences that just didn't read like full sentences. It was pretty jarring and happened throughout the whole thing. The authors also referred to "Trikes" so many times in the book, and it took until almost the end for them to finally verify that this meant Triceratops. I've never heard this before and was annoyed every time it was used that I had to guess what it meant.
They also reference Brontosaurus a lot, without ever mentioning the Brontosaurus saga that lasted from 1903-2015, which I found odd.
There is also a part on pg. 122 of the paperback where the authors reference the wrong movie when talking about the Spinosaurus - she is the main villain in Jurassic Park III, not The Lost World.
If you want some general Dinosaur facts, this isn't a bad book to pick up, especially if you do love the Jurassic movies.
We learn the science behind some of the things we see in the Jurassic Park franchise, like the reality of cloning an animal from millions years old DNA (impossible due to DNA's half-life), the life of a real paleontologist, and things I couldn't have cared less about, like how tall a Triceratops poop pile would be (based on the scene in the first movie). This last one was the only chapter that I guiltlessly skipped partway through.
This book was oddly written at times and had a lot of sentences that just didn't read like full sentences. It was pretty jarring and happened throughout the whole thing. The authors also referred to "Trikes" so many times in the book, and it took until almost the end for them to finally verify that this meant Triceratops. I've never heard this before and was annoyed every time it was used that I had to guess what it meant.
They also reference Brontosaurus a lot, without ever mentioning the Brontosaurus saga that lasted from 1903-2015, which I found odd.
There is also a part on pg. 122 of the paperback where the authors reference the wrong movie when talking about the Spinosaurus - she is the main villain in Jurassic Park III, not The Lost World.
If you want some general Dinosaur facts, this isn't a bad book to pick up, especially if you do love the Jurassic movies.
August 28, 2024
This book falls between “pretty good” and “good.”
I really liked how the writer called out the scientific issues in the movies. But the author seemed a bit juvenile at times and took a full section to rant about COVID & politics. That was a real turn off, and I almost returned the book checkout right then.
Since I consumed this book via audio, I think that made most of the faults more forgivable as it was like listening to a lecture as opposed to reading scientific writing. (But it doesn’t forgive the foray into US politics during COVID.)
I really liked how the writer called out the scientific issues in the movies. But the author seemed a bit juvenile at times and took a full section to rant about COVID & politics. That was a real turn off, and I almost returned the book checkout right then.
Since I consumed this book via audio, I think that made most of the faults more forgivable as it was like listening to a lecture as opposed to reading scientific writing. (But it doesn’t forgive the foray into US politics during COVID.)
February 6, 2023
So this started off rather good. That was until the book got to discussing feces. That one chapter had so many immature and frankly stupid ways of saying poop. I'm not exaggerating. I lost count. Up to then, the book was very informative and felt very scientific. After that chapter, I just couldn't take anything the author said seriously. In all honesty, that one chapter put the whole book into question. And then when he started talking about dinosaur coitus, it was like he couldn't type out the words at times. Again, it felt rather immature. So those two chapters brought my review down by two stars. If you skip those two chapters, the book is pretty good and rather informative. Those two chapters I just couldn't get over how immature the author was being.
July 15, 2025
This was a pretty decent read and had some interesting facts about dinosaurs that I didn't know.
I did not like the random chapter about politics. Why? Totally unnecessary. Also, I agree with the other reviewer about the two immaturely written chapters.
I did not like the random chapter about politics. Why? Totally unnecessary. Also, I agree with the other reviewer about the two immaturely written chapters.
April 15, 2023
this book had cool dino facts but not as well written as other dinosaur books - it was missing the thrill of the roar
October 2, 2023
4/5 stars.
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