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Marginocephalians
Ceratopsia
Ceratopsidae
Ceratopsids in general
- Artistic License – Paleontology: They all possess tails that are too long
and have elephantine feet and musculature their actual foot anatomy and musculature was very different. They are also depicted with elephantine wrinkly skin when in reality they had◊ polygonal scales with large feature scales. - Beware the Nice Ones: They have horns and know how to use them otherwise they are peaceful.
- Herbivores Are Friendly: They are quite docile if not aggravated.
- Horn Attack: They all possess horns that are not just for display.
- Temper-Ceratops: They will stampede, flip vehicles over, fight off large theropods, and trample anything in their path if provoked.
Nasutoceratops
Nasutoceratops
Appearances: Jurassic World: Battle at Big Rock | Jurassic World Dominion
A medium-sized ceratopsid with bull-like horns bred for Jurassic World. After the park fell and the island's volcano began to erupt, some individuals would be saved and released into the wilds of California, where one pair near Big Rock National Park would take up residence and begin breeding.- Accidental Hero: The individual in Dominion who charged and flipped the second truck that was pursuing Claire, Zia and Franklin, unknowingly saving the trio from being shot.
- Anachronistic Animal: The Distant Prologue to Dominion shows them alive at the very end of the Cretaceous period 65 million years ago, when Nasutoceratops had in fact gone extinct several million years before that time, around 75 million years ago. Especially jarring since the iconic Triceratops would've actually been much more appropriate for the time period, or Torosaurus if they wanted to keep an obscure species in play.
- Artistic License – Paleontology: They're about twice the size of the real animal and depicted with prominent sexual dimorphism, which is currently unknown in any ceratopsid species (or at least, any sexual dimorphism that could be determined from fossilized bones). Also, their feet are wrongly shaped and their tails are too long, as with other ceratopsids in the films.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Nasutoceratops are typically curious and gentle, but they will not hesitate in using their horns for defensive purposes.
- Bizarre Sexual Dimorphism: The female has a curved back and a skull that's very close to fossils of the actual animal, while the male has a longer skull more reminiscent of Torosaurus, a spike on its boss, and a more flattened back.
- Canon Immigrant: Nasutoceratops has appeared in several Jurassic Park games before debuting in Battle at Big Rock.
- Herbivores Are Friendly:
- They are implied to be quite docile if not aggravated, but the only one who gets close enough to test this is a hungry Allosaurus in Jurassic World: Battle at Big Rock.
- In Jurassic World Dominion, several of them are seen attacking vehicles with Triceratops and Sinoceratops.
- Horn Attack: Their horns are their primary defensive weapons against predators.
- Mama Bear: The female is highly protective of her offspring.
- Papa Wolf: The male immediately rushes in to protect his mate and offspring from a hungry Allosaurus.
- Remember the New Guy?: Nasutoceratops appears as a dinosaur apparently released from the Arcadia, but was in neither Jurassic World nor Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.
- Temper-Ceratops: They will become aggressive if you threaten their young.
Sinoceratops
Sinoceratops
Appearances: Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom | Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous | Jurassic World Dominion
A large single-horned ceratopsid that was discovered in China and bred for Jurassic World, being kept near Camp Cretaceous until the park fell. Once the island's volcano erupted, many individuals were captured and released into California.
- Accidental Hero: The individual that woke Owen up after he had been shot with a tranquilizer by Wheatley, saving him from burning to death in the lava.
- Artistic License – Paleontology: It is portrayed as having a hole in the fenestrae of its frill. Especially jarring as of the franchise debut of Nasutoceratops, which by contrast is portrayed with the correct skin covering over its fenestrae. It would have been even more inaccurate if it had been Pachyrhinosaurus as originally planned, as Pachyrhinosaurus is famous for not having horns on its head. Some concept art suggests the hole was supposed to be an individual-specific injury, but somewhere along the line, it turned into a naturally occurring species-wide trait, for whatever reason. Ancillary material describes these animals as being close to Sinoceratops-dominant ceratopsian hybrids, with their genetic code informed by several other centroosaurines including Pachyrhinosaurus.
- Beware the Nice Ones: The same case as its North American cousins, Triceratops and Nasutoceratops. Promotional material has it posing with Claire in several photos and it's introduced in the film by coming across an inert Owen and gently licking his face instead of trying to gore and/or trample him to death. When next we get to see another of its species, however, it's fighting off a Carnotaurus, showing it's not a friendly herbivore when aggravated.
- Canon Foreigner: Fallen Kingdom is the official debut of Sinoceratops in the franchise.
- Herbivores Are Friendly: According to
Word of God, the Sinoceratops which licks Owen while he's paralyzed was because it was acting on maternal instinct to rouse him (presumably thinking he was an injured baby).- Played with in Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous, as one individual that the campers chase turns around and rams them. Once it calms down it seems it's friendly enough to allow the campers to use it in a pulley system though. Another individual stung by a Scorpius rex quill charges Darius when he takes it out but doesn't do anything more when he leaves as he's no longer a threat.
- Horn Attack: In contrast to Triceratops, it has only one horn on its nose. Not that it wouldn't deliver just as much damage.
- Interspecies Friendship: The ending of Dominion shows several Sinoceratops peacefully traveling alongside a herd of African elephants.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: Possibly. Tie-in material describes these animals as actually having the genetic material of several ceratopsid dinosaurs with the Sinoceratops DNA being the most phenotypically expressed.
- Remember the New Guy?: Sinoceratops wasn't mentioned at all on the list of dinosaurs displayed at Jurassic World. Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous establishes that they were present at the time of the first film.
- Temper-Ceratops: One of them briefly fights off a hungry Carnotaurus while fleeing the eruption of Mt. Sibo. Camp Cretaceous also shows that it is a bad idea to agitate them. In Dominion, they join fellow ceratopsids Triceratops and Nasutoceratops in attacking vehicles.
Triceratops
Triceratops
"She was my favorite dinosaur when I was a kid and now I see her and she's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."
Appearances: Jurassic Park | The Lost World: Jurassic Park | Jurassic Park III | Jurassic World | The Evolution Of Claire | Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom | Jurassic World Dominion
"Triceratops love getting scratched behind their shield-like frills."
— Jurassic World website
A famous ceratopsian with three horns on its face bred for Jurassic Park and bred on both Isla Sorna and later Nublar. The Triceratops at Isla Nublar would face a strange disease with an unknown cause. A new variation would later be kept at Jurassic World, with babies are present in the Gentle Giants Petting Zoo, while the adults reside in "Triceratops Valley" and the Gyrosphere Safari. Once the park fell and the island's volcano erupted, many of them were captured and released into California.
- Adaptation Species Change: The sick individual in Jurassic Park was a Stegosaurus in the book.
- Artistic License – Paleontology: The Masrani batch have suffered a setback in terms of accuracy compared to InGen's first batch. Besides the elephant-like feet and overly-long tail inherited from its InGen precursor, it should have really big feature scales on the back.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Listed as not very aggressive, but their horns are not just used for display.
- Herbivores Are Friendly: Has a low Aggression Index. This may have been so the babies could be trusted with human children.
- Horn Attack: Makes sense, since they're ceratopsians.
- In-Series Nickname: Referred to colloquially as a "Trike".
- The Knights Who Say "Squee!": Invokes this in Grant, since Triceratops was one of his favorite dinosaurs when he was growing up.
- Named by the Adaptation: LEGO Jurassic World reveals that Gerry Harding named the Jurassic Park individual "Sarah" after his daughter.
- Red Shirt: The illness of the sick Triceratops really serves no purpose besides giving Sattler an excuse to be separated from the group.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: The babies! Kids are even allowed to ride on them!
- Shown Their Work:
- Unlike in Jurassic World, the Triceratops in Jurassic Park correctly have huge feature scales on its back.
- The babies have upward-facing horns like their real-life counterparts.
- Temper-Ceratops: They can easily wreck tents, flip vehicles over, and trample anything in their path if provoked.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: We are never told of the fate of the sick Triceratops, nor do we find out what made her sick.note According to promotional material for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, she died sometime after the events of the film, and her corpse was eaten by Rexy.
Other ceratopsians
Microceratus
Microceratus
Appearances: Jurassic World Dominion
A tiny ceratopsian bred and kept on Isla Sorna before being displayed at Jurassic World for the Cretaceous Cruise.
- Adaptational Late Appearance: Microceratus is present in the original Jurassic Park novel under its original scientific name Microceratops.
- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: The Microceratus in Dominion have different colorations, ranging from indigo with blue stripes and light underside to a mixture of red, orange, yellow, green, and brown.
- Art Evolution: The Microceratus in Dominion looks quite different from its appearance in the Jurassic World website, which had much more vibrant color patterns in comparison.
- Artistic License – Paleontology:
- In 2008 Microceratus was found to be undiagnostic as its material can't be referred to as anything. As such, the genus is dubious, and was reassigned to Graciliceratops. Scientifically speaking, Microceratus should instead be called Graciliceratops.
- The Microceratus in Dominion have their eyes placed too forward in their skulls.
- In 2008 Microceratus was found to be undiagnostic as its material can't be referred to as anything. As such, the genus is dubious, and was reassigned to
- Early-Bird Cameo: In Jurassic World, Microceratus is one of the animals featured in the Innovation Center's Holoscape.
- Herbivores Are Friendly: They are docile enough for humans to pet them.
Pachycephalosauria
Pachycephalosaurs in general
- Headbutting Pachy: They tend to use their thick dome-like heads to headbutt their way out of certain situations.
- Herbivores Are Friendly: Downplayed. They have a tendency of ramming anything that infuriates them.
Pachycephalosaurus
Pachycephalosaurus
Appearances: The Lost World: Jurassic Park | Jurassic World
A human-sized bipedal herbivorous dinosaur with a dome-shaped head used for ramming bred for Jurassic Park and kept on Isla Sorna, several were seen and at least one was captured during Ludlow's men's safari but were released by Hammond's group. The species would later be kept at Jurassic World for the Pachycephalosaurus Arena.
- Animal Stampede: Is caught during one of these in the second film's beginning.
- Animals Not to Scale: The Pachycephalosaurus in the second film are depicted as being about half the size of the real animals, though it is possible that these individuals are still adolescents. The individual that appears in Jurassic World, however, is more than half again as large as its real-life counterpart.
- Artistic License – Paleontology: Depicted with a kangaroo-like posture when it should have a more horizontal posture.
- The Bus Came Back: Pachycephalosaurus makes a brief cameo Jurassic World, 18 years since its previous appearance in The Lost World: Jurassic Park.
- Demoted to Extra: Had some minor, but memorable scenes in The Lost World but in Jurassic World one only appears very briefly unconscious in security footage after being sedated.
- Headbutting Pachy: One of them rams into a car door and knocks the man standing behind it through the vehicle. As a bonus, this happens while Burke is explaining to a colleague how the species can pull this off.
- Herbivores Are Friendly: Subverted. Pachycephalosaurus will headbutt anything that provokes them.
- In-Universe Nickname: "Friar Tuck".
- Red Shirt: The only reason it appears is so that it can be rallied up by Ludlow's mercenaries.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: It is unknown if the Isla Nublar population survived the events of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom or if any from the Isla Sorna population were relocated to the Biosyn sanctuary in Jurassic World Dominion.
Stygimoloch
- See Stiggy
Thyreophoreans
Thyreophoreans in general
- Beware My Stinger Tail: Their tails are always equipped with formidable weapons.
- Herbivores Are Friendly: Played with. They will not hesitate in swinging their dangerous tails at anything that they perceive as a threat, but they aren't Played for Horror as often as the carnivores.
- Tough Armored Dinosaur: These herbivores are basically living tanks that are prepared to fend off any potential aggressor with their armored bodies and their weaponized tails as their best defenses.
Ankylosaurus
Ankylosaurus
Appearances: Jurassic Park III | Jurassic World | Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom | Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous | Jurassic World Dominion
"Their armor is covered with a layer of keratin — exactly the stuff your fingernails are made out of."
— Jurassic World website
A large armored dinosaur with a clubbed tail that was bred and released illegally on Isla Sorna. Another variation would later be kept at Jurassic World for the Gyrosphere Attraction and Camp Cretaceous until the park fell. Once the island's volcano began to erupt, many individuals were captured and released into California.
- Adaptational Dye-Job: The Jurassic World individuals lose the black, red, and tan coloration it had in Jurassic Park III in favor of a uniform brownish-grey.
- All There in the Manual: According to preliminary marketing material for Fallen Kingdom, Ankylosaurus was one of several species secretly bred on Sorna by Masrani Corp. not long after they bought out InGen.
- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: The individuals in Jurassic Park III sport black osteoderms with faded purple stripes, bright red patches on their eyes, and a dark tan underbelly.
- Artistic License – Paleontology:
- In reality Ankylosaurus had more smoothed armor and none of those large spikes along the sides. They had high-keeled osteoderms in the pelvic region, rounder osteoderms near the front, their cervical half rings point backward, lacked flat rectangular plates, and had wide ovular bodies. Its beak was also much broader and didn't have such a pointed tip as the real animal. It also had shorter legs and couldn't gallop like the ones in the films.
- Bumpy as a hatchling looked like a stubbier, miniature version of the adult Ankylosaurus. In reality, she would have been born without armor or a tail club, growing them at a later stage of her life.
- In reality
- Ascended Extra: A minor example. Ankylosaurus made a few brief cameos in Jurassic Park III, but here they get their own scene interacting with the kids and Indominus rex, and one of them even fights the hybrid theropod briefly.
- Attack Its Weak Point: Its underside and its head are vulnerable. Unfortunately for the one that fights the Indominus, the predator figures this out.
- Beware My Stinger Tail: The thick club on their tail. Zach and Gray get to see it in action when the Ankylosaurus nearly smashes their Gyrosphere. The Indominus, however, shrugs off a blow to the head.
- Flipping Helpless: How the Indominus manages to finish one individual off.
- Herbivores Are Friendly: Averted. Their Aggression Index is "medium". Actually, they will only attack if you come close enough that they feel threatened, though when the I. rex attacks they go into a blind panic and start lashing out at everything in sight.
- Played straight in Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous, where the campers can walk through a herd of them without any aggression directed at them.
- Informed Species: It more closely resembles Tarchia or Zuul due to its spiky armor.
- Mama Bear: Adult Ankylosaurus will form a protective circle around the juveniles to deter potential predators.
- Mass "Oh, Crap!": The quartet of them all panic when they are confronted by the I. rex.
- No-Sell:
- The Indominus trying to bite one doesn't work at first because even her jaws can't get through its armor. Its unprotected underside is a different story.
- The sharp claws and venomous quills of the Scorpios rex are unable to pierce through the osteoderms of the Ankylosaurus.
- Off with His Head!: The one that fights Indominus gets decapitated by her.
- Studded Shell: Its armor resembles a bony shell adorned with spikes.
- Tough Armored Dinosaur: They will stand their ground against bloodthirsty hybrids and swing their clubbed tails like wrecking balls.
- The Worf Effect: Such a resilient creature's defeat at the claws of I. rex is the first clear look at the latter's threat level.
- You Don't Look Like You: The Ankylos seen in the two Jurassic World films bear some notable differences when compared with the original ones seen in Jurassic Park III, which had slightly shorter spikes, a darker armor color, a lighter colored body and a red stripe across their face. This can be easily explained by them being a different batch of clones.
Kentrosaurus
- See Pierce
Stegosaurus
Stegosaurus
Appearances: The Lost World: Jurassic Park | Jurassic Park III | Jurassic World | Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom | Jurassic World: Battle at Big Rock | Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous | Jurassic World Dominion
"Prior to their rebirth at Jurassic World, a popular misconception was that Stegosaurus had a second brain in its rump!"
— Jurassic World website
A famous dinosaur recognized by the backplates and spiked tail bred for Jurassic Park but was never moved over to Nublar. Another variation would later be kept at Jurassic World in the Cretaceous Cruise, Gyrosphere Safari, Gentle Giants Petting Zoo, and Camp Cretaceous. Once the island's volcano began to erupt, many individuals were captured and released into California.
- Adaptational Late Appearance: The sick dinosaur in the Jurassic Park novel was a Stegosaurus, but it was replaced with a Triceratops. Stegosaurus made its debut in the second film instead.
- Animals Not to Scale: The ones in The Lost World are twice the size of the real animal. This is averted in Jurassic World as they are accurately sized this time. An unused model for Fallen Kingdom took this to an absurd degree, depicting a Stegosaurus carcass easily ten times bigger than the real animal.
- Artistic License – Paleontology:
- The real Stegosaurus kept the tail elevated at all times, contrary to the ones in the Jurassic World films prior to Dominion, which is jarring given the stegosaurs in previous films were portrayed with more accurate tail-raised posturesnote . And then in Fallen Kingdom they seem to have ditched their ornithischian beak (or made it subtle, like with the Gallimimus), although they get them back in Camp Cretaceous. The Dominion viral marketing website handwaves the droopy tail and malformed beak as signs of malnutrition.
- As all of the large herbivores in the franchise, it's also depicted with flat, elephantine feet, when its actual foot anatomy was more complex.
- They are stated to shed their back plates in Camp Cretaceous, despite the fact the plates are firmly embedded in the skin. However, the Dominion viral marketing site clarifies that it's the plates' sheathes that are shed, not the plates themselves.
- The real
- Beware My Stinger Tail: The spiked tail, famously known as a thagomizer.
- Beware the Nice Ones: While listed with low aggression, they can defend themselves very well.
- Early-Bird Cameo: The Stegosaurus name makes a few appearances in the first film, most notably when Dennis Nedry steals the embryo vials.
- Herbivores Are Friendly:
- In the original novel of Jurassic Park, InGen's engineers assumed this and were sorely mistaken. Stegosaurus herds at Jurassic Park become unreasonably aggressive and devolve into violence if they go over 6 adults.
- Averted by the wild ones seen in The Lost World: Jurassic Park were fairly aggressive and the real Stegosaurus may well have been among the most dangerous dinosaurs of its time.
- Played straight in Jurassic World, as they are listed with a low aggression level and are very calm around other herbivores and Gyrospheres. Possibly justified, as they were raised in captivity and may have also been genetically altered to be docile towards humans.
- Played with in season 2 of Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous, where the Jurassic World variants are shown to be both unaggressive and readily aggressive towards each other and humans on multiple occasions.
- Mama Bear/Papa Wolf: Threaten their baby and they will make sure their tail spikes will go through you.
- Shown Their Work:
- TLW is one of the first films to portray Stegosaurus as being quick and agile for its size, after decades of being depicted as slow and sluggish. It is also depicted as a herd animal, rather than solitary as in classic portraits.
- In Dominion, it is depicted with the beak and elevated, horizontal tail of the real animal, fixing the inaccuracies made by the last two films. The tie-in website also states its plates are sheathed in keratin, based on a well-preserved specimen of fellow stegosaur Hesperosaurus.
- The Tooth Hurts: One had her tooth torn out by Wheatley in Fallen Kingdom.
- Tiny-Headed Behemoth: The head of the Stegosaurus is relatively small compared to its large body.
- Tough Armored Dinosaur: They are quick to violence at perceived threats, like Sarah approaching their baby.
Ornithopods
Ornithopods in general
- Herbivores Are Friendly: They are among the most passive animals in the franchise, but can still be quite aggressive if provoked.
- Social Ornithopod: The franchise's ornithopods are almost always seen living in herds and tend to mingle with other herbivorous species.Dr. Grant: They're moving in herds. They do move in herds.
Hadrosauriformes
Iguanodon
Iguanodon
Appearances: Jurassic World Dominion
A large, thumb-spiked ornithopod that appears in the flashback set during the Cretaceous period, scared off by a Giganotosaurus. In the present, it was cloned by BioSyn for their sanctuary.
- Anachronistic Animal: While the prologue already has a fair share of anachronism for showing a hodgepodge of assorted fauna from across the Late Cretaceous (which is a sizeable chunk of time covering 30 million years or more), Iguanodon is even more out of place than the rest for being an Early Cretaceous dinosaur.
- Animals Not to Scale: The real and the cloned Iguanodon are comparable to Tyrannosaurus in size, but the one seen in the prologue is slightly smaller. It is possible that the individual is not yet fully grown.
- Canon Immigrant: Iguanodon first appeared in the "soft canon" book Jurassic Park Adventures - Survivor.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Iguanodon makes its first appearance as a mural in the Jurassic Park Visitor Center.
- Informed Species: Zig-zagged. The one in the prologue seemingly has shorter forelimbs and a skull more like those of its close relative Mantellisaurus, but that's a case of forced perspective. That said, its forelimbs are still too short compared to the large ones of the real Iguanodon, making it resemble Mantellisaurus.
- Irony: Despite being one of the first dinosaurs ever described, it physically appears in the last film of the series.
- Misplaced Wildlife: It is shown living alongside Giganotosaurus (South America), as well as Moros and Tyrannosaurus (North America) in the prologue. In real life, Iguanodon lived only in Europe, not to mention millions of years before the aforementioned theropods evolved. That said, Iguanodon was long thought to have lived worldwide, but all the supposed non-European specimens have been since assigned to separate genera.
- Shown Their Work: It is correctly depicted as quadrupedal and holds its body in a horizontal posture. It also clearly has a beak, unlike its most famous depiction in film.
- Social Ornithopod: Averted in the prologue, as it is shown grazing by itself. Played straight with the cloned individuals that socialize with each other and other dinosaurs.
Ouranosaurus
Ouranosaurus
Appearances: Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous
Sail-backed, unusually aggressive ornithopods bred for Jurassic World.
- Aquatic Hadrosaursnote : They can swim, as proven when they are attacking the campers' yacht. Justified since Ouranosaurus was from a very wet habitat similar to mangrove swamps, and as such was likely to have been at least somewhat comfortable with swimming to get from place to place.
- Artistic License – Paleontology: It is depicted as a quadruped, when the real animal was more likely a biped (though it would have crouched in a quadrupedal stance).
- Canon Immigrant: The first dinosaur species encountered by the campers that weren't seen in any of the films up to that point. Concept art shows they were originally intended to appear in Jurassic Park III. That said they have appeared in the franchise's video games before, specifically in Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis.
- Herbivores Are Friendly: Averted hard, much to Darius' surprise. Their introductory appearance sees them attacking and stalking the campers around a misty dockyard in a scene out of a horror film. That said, Darius mentions that this is abnormal behavior for the species and they are implied to be behaving this way because of the Scorpios rexes' presence on the island.
- Made of Iron: One of them shrugs off a direct hit to the head of Bumpy's tail club and just gets annoyed, although it does get knocked backward a good bit.
- Remember the New Guy?: Ouranosaurus is not mentioned at all on the list of dinosaurs displayed at Jurassic World.
- Shark Fin of Doom: The sail of the Ouranosaurus juts out of the water surface like a shark's fin when it is submerged.
- Shown Their Work: It is correctly depicted with a thick sail.
- Social Ornithopod: They live in herds to protect themselves from predators.
- Super-Persistent Predator: A rare herbivore example. Even after the campers escape the docks on a boat, the Ouranosaurs follow them into the water and climb on board to attack, with only a reasonable amount of fireworks scaring them off. Must be a thing with sail-backed dinosaurs, though the end of the episode also implies that the presence of the Scorpios rexes is what's causing them to act erratically.
- Uncertain Doom: Seemingly the same pair of Ouranosaurus that he Campers encounter are killed by the Soccorpius Rex, however at least one other specimen was seen afterwards the episode in Eye of the Storm, however its final fate is unknown as is it not known if it or any other Ouranosaurus survived the events of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: It is unknown if any survived the events of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.
- Xenophobic Herbivore: They are herbivorous animals who attack the campers just because the kids are foreign to them.
Lambeosaurinae
Corythosaurus
Corythosaurus
Appearances: Jurassic Park III
A hadrosaur with a helmet-like crest on its head that was illegally bred and released on Isla Sorna.
- All There in the Manual: According to preliminary marketing material for Fallen Kingdom, Corythosaurus was one of several species secretly bred on Sorna by Masrani Corp. not long after they bought out InGen.
- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: Its coloration is primarily grey and yellow with an orange and red crest.
- Animal Stampede: A mixed herd of them and Parasaurolophus run away after Grant and the Kirbys disturb them fleeing from the raptors.
- Artistic License – Paleontology: They are depicted in a bipedal kangaroo-like posture and grasping hands despite the fact that large hadrosaurs had horizontal postures and were primarily if not exclusively quadrupeds, they possessed hooves instead of hands.
- Early-Bird Cameo: It can be seen in the first film on a mural at the Jurassic Park Visitor Center, specifically in the background during Sattler and Hammond's conversation.
- Four Legs Good, Two Legs Better: The real Corythosaurus was mainly quadrupedal, but they are mainly bipedal in their appearance in the film.
- Social Ornithopod: They live in large herds and will mingle with other dinosaur species.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: It's unknown what happened to the species after the events of Jurassic Park III or if any were relocated to the Biosyn sanctuary in Jurassic World Dominion.
Parasaurolophus
Parasaurolophus
Appearances: Jurassic Park | The Lost World: Jurassic Park | Jurassic Park III | Jurassic World | Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom | Jurassic World: Battle at Big Rock | Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous | Jurassic World Dominion
A hadrosaur with a long crest on its head bred for Jurassic Park. When Ludlow's Men's Safari arrived on Isla Sorna at least one was captured and later set free from Hammond's own team. The species would later be kept at Jurassic World, with babies found in the Gentle Giants Petting Zoo and adults in the Gyrosphere attraction, Cretaceous Cruise, and a bioluminescent variant in the River Adventure. After the park fell and the island's volcano began erupting many were captured and released into the wilds of California.
- Adaptational Early Appearance: Parasaurolophus first appeared in The Lost World novel. In the films, they make their debut in Jurassic Park.
- Adaptational Species Change: The token hadrosaurs in the book were Maiasaura and Hadrosaurus.
- Animal Stampede: The films almost always have Parasaurolophus stampeding, either with their own kind or alongside other dinosaur species.
- Animals Not to Scale: Subverted. The ones we see in Dominion are only a bit bigger than horses, small enough that Owen can pet one of them on the crest while it's reared up. These individuals, however, are only juveniles, shots of the adults in the film and size chart◊ list them at the proper size with the juveniles next to them.note
- Aquatic Hadrosaurs: The bioluminescent individuals can swim. Given that they have been genetically modified to have bioluminescent markings, it's likely they were also genetically modified to be semi-aquatic. When the flaming locusts inadvertently cause a forest fire across the BioSyn Valley, several Parasaurolophus take to the water for protection from the blaze.
- Artistic License – Paleontology: Despite the Parasaurolophus from the first film being correctly depicted as quadrupedal, the individuals seen in the sequels are depicted as bipedal with a kangaroo-like posture and grasping hands. The ones from Dominion have a more horizontal posture and hooves instead of hands, but they are still depicted as bipeds when they should be primarily quadrupeds. Word of God states that the bipedal ones seen in the film are juveniles and the adults are quadrupeds, but the hypothesis that hadrosaurs started off as bipeds and grew into quadrupeds is now discredited.
- Ascended Extra: Downplayed. Parasaurolophus appeared in one brief background shot in the first film, but in the second, third, and sixth films, they had some scenes where they were the focus.
- Bioluminescence Is Cool: Several specimens with bioluminescence appear in Camp Cretaceous.
- The Cameo: In the first film, they only appear alongside the Brachiosaurus in the lake scene. They are featured much more prominently in every film since.
- Canon Foreigner: They weren't in the first book, but do show up in the second.
- Four Legs Good, Two Legs Better: Later installments depict Parasaurolophus as walking on two legs when the real animal was quadrupedal and only bipedal when running. However, they are shown as quadrupeds in a few shots and the tie-in marketing of Dominion.
- Herbivores Are Friendly: Surprisingly for duckbilled dinosaurs, which are typically portrayed as placid if not downright gentle, the Paras avert this several times. While they aren't shown to be dangerous to humans, they do seem to have somewhat boisterous and aggressive mannerisms. The one captured in the second film is seen chasing after the hunters after Nick frees it and during the stampede in the third film, they're seen actively ramming and crashing into each other to escape from the raptors (who are interested in the humans, not them). Two parasaurs in the fourth film get into a dispute in the Gyrosphere Valley. The bioluminescent Paras in Camp Cretaceous start getting aggressive with the kids as they kayak across their lake. A Parasaurolophus herd even fights off Chaos the Baryonyx to protect an elderly member that they are hiding.
- Interspecies Friendship: Dominion shows the Parasaurolophus that Owen wrangles at the start of the film is walking peacefully alongside the horses Owen brought with him while he is leading the dinosaur to a safe place. At the end of the film, several Parasaurolophus are seen socializing with herds of feral horses in the North American wilderness. Even before this, they're shown to have no problem forming mixed herds with other hadrosaurs (namely Corythosaurus).
- Shown Their Work: The updated redesign for Dominion gives them a thick, muscular neck and a bulkier body similar to what is now known for the real animal. They also have fleshy hooves like real hadrosaurs, instead of hands as in the previous films, and they are shown as quadrupeds in a few shots and the tie-in marketing. This makes the Dominion design of the Parasaurolophus the most accurate animal in the franchise so far, alongside the Quetzalcoatlus in the prologue.
- Social Ornithopod: They live in large herds and will mingle with other dinosaur species. One scene in Dominion shows them running peacefully alongside feral horses. The final season of Camp Cretaceous has a whole herd using leaves to hide an elderly member before working together to fight off the Baryonyx Chaos that has been stalking them.
- Use Your Head: The final season of Camp Cretaceous shows that Parasaurolophus can use the crests on their heads as battering rams against predators.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: It is unknown if any of the bioluminescent individuals from Camp Cretaceous survived the events of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.
- You Don't Look Like You: One of several dinosaur species to be given a redesign in Dominion, with muscular necks and bodies more similar to those hypothesized for real hadrosaurs, in addition to having fleshy hooves on their forelimbs instead of hands as shown in prior films. In addition, they've been given a more pointed crest shape, darker overall coloration, and faint vertical stripes along their dorsum. The Dinotracker website identifies these as a new variant released into the wild from an unknown source, and the original Nublar version is seen in the background when Ellie pets the baby Nasutoceratops.
