海角大神

The numbers are in, and to little surprise, the much-anticipated release of cult favorite 鈥淛urassic World鈥� has blown away the box office this weekend, grossing a staggering $82.3 million, according to reports.

But as critics buzz over the film鈥檚 potential bank as the biggest movie box office opening of all time, some dinosaur fans are conferring about the credibility of the science in the movie 鈥� and the possible confusion over blending fact and fiction.聽

鈥淚 feel like paleontologists fear they may get a lot of dumb questions because of the dinosaurs in this film,鈥� fossil enthusiast Brian Switek told the New York Times.

聽鈥淧art of the reason the director聽Colin Trevorrow鈥檚 dinosaurs have such potential to confuse is because not everything about them is scientifically far-fetched,鈥� the report continued.

For years, 鈥淛urassic Park鈥� creators have trumpeted the amount of careful research that has poured into creating some of their dinosaurs鈥� features. In its latest film, for instance, the interior 鈥減alatal鈥� teeth of a mosasaur聽impressed many experts. "That聽really shows an attention to detail,鈥� a paleontologist told National Geographic.

So what mistakes were made in 鈥淛urassic World?鈥�

• Most dinosaurs should have feathers 鈥� all different kinds.
  The dinosaur community鈥檚 No. 1 complaint is that the film鈥檚 research appears to be outdated, relying on hypotheses made in the 1980s rather than scientists鈥� recent discoveries. We now know, for example, that the majority of dinosaurs had a variety of plumage, 鈥渇rom insulating tufts to decorative barbs to fully developed feathers,鈥� reported National Geographic. The movie鈥檚 feather-free velociraptors appear to show otherwise.
• The velociraptors are too big.
  Real velociraptors were roughly the same size as a 鈥渕edium-sized dog鈥� weighing 75 pounds, according to the University of California Museum of Paleontology.聽
• Similarly, the mosasaurs are also too big, and should not have a frill on their backs.
  Scientists聽disproved the existence聽of a frill about 10 years ago, and expressed amazement at how 鈥渟upersize鈥� the mosasaurs appeared.

• Pterosaurs can't lift people into the air.
  The ones in 鈥淛urassic World鈥� managed to, but real pterosaurs would not have had half the strength required, according to paleontologists.
• The velociraptors鈥� wrists shouldn鈥檛 be able to move so much.
  Experts said the velociraptors鈥� hands were shown in a posture the paleontology community has since departed from. Their wrists should instead have been pointed inward, 鈥渁s if they were holding a basketball,鈥� reported the New York Times.

Why then, do paleontologists continue to express their fondness for the Jurassic Park movie series in the face of聽such striking inaccuracies? "If you're a young paleontologist, and you have a job, the movies have some part in that, frankly," Smithsonian paleontologist Matthew Carrano told the Washington Post.