re:Errors in Jurassic Park

["Cunningham, Betty" <bcunning@nssi.com>]

     gosh, where does one start?
     
     Do you only want errors of science from the movie?  No continuity 
     errors?  Or will you also refer to errors in the book?
     
     these are my own observations, and I apologize if any are duplicated 
     on any websites.  I'm at work and I have no access here to double 
     check for them.  I'm skipping many that have been discussed to death 
     here on the list.
     
     1)the run of the T rex.
     When the T rex is chasing the jeep, watch his knees.  They wobble like 
     someone doing the Charleston.  If a real animal that stood 30 ft high, 
     and weighed in the area of 9 tons ran like that, the creature would 
     dislocate it's own knees with each step of a run.  There's a LOT of 
     force in a 9 ton animal's leg.
     (the reason they did it that way--The animation tool that ILM was 
     using for animating in a computer environment, Softimage, had no way 
     to simulate ball-and-socket-type joints, such as the hip, so the 
     animators faked one out of a hinge-type joint as a poor substitute)
     
     2)tail-rippling of theropods.
     During high-excitement moments, the 'raptors' and the T rex both 
     ripple their tails and lash them, rather like a cat that's highly 
     annoyed.  Therapods, however, have rigid fibers reinforcing the 
     vertebrae in the spine to help counter-balance the weight of the 
     animal.  This would make tails much too stiff for thrashing.
     (the reason they did it that way--Hollyood stop-motion dinosaurs have 
     always rippled their tails.  It's a tradition that people seem to 
     expect from their dinosaurs)
     
     3)lip-curling of 'Raptors'
     The 'raptors' snarled several times, and even lifted their lips in a 
     snarl when angry.  Theropods didn't have a lot of face muscles and 
     this is actally a very sophisticated movement in a human, taking an 
     extremely complex series of muscle movements that there is no evidence 
     of dromasaurids being able to do.
     
     4)that was a mighty big T rex.
     Now how do you grow a T rex that big? The real animal would probably 
     take 10+ years to grow to that size, based on growth-patterns found in 
     the bones of Maiasaurs, and other compatriots of T rex.  The 
     scientists in the movie managed it in under 3 years.
     
     5)The mosquito.
     The movie-clip showed a scientist drilling into the amber, inserting a 
     needle, and WITHDRAWING FLUIDS.  Fluids?   After 65 million years?  
     Come on, now.  The real scientists that do this type of research are 
     at the University of California at Berkeley.  They take scrapings of 
     the material, and do much preperation in order to make the fluid that 
     they can then test for DNA.
     
     -Betty