Jurassic Park Part 3: Dilophosaurus

Now we come to the final part of the Jurassic Park series, ending with perhaps the most controversial aspect of the movie: the depiction of the Dilophosaurus (Welles, 1970). Namely, this will involve examining Dilophosaurus' size and whether it possessed a frill and venom.

In the movie, Dilophosaurus is depicted as being about 91 cm high and 1.5 m long (Shay and Duncan, 1993). In reality, however, Dilophosaurus was larger, measuring up to 7 m long and perhaps weighing up to a ton (Holtz, 2012). Interesting that, in the movie, Velociraptor was depicted to be larger and Dilophosaurus smaller.

 

(Segisaurus)

In the movie, Dilophosaurus was depicted as having a frill. Whilst there is no evidence that Dilophosaurus possessed such a feature, it has been proposed for one of its relatives, Segisaurus (Camp, 1936). Charles Camp believed Segisaurus had a small frill along each side of its neck to make the animal more aerodynamic as it ran. This later turned out to be an error.

(Sinornithosaurus)

Venom is another aspect of Jurassic Park's Dilophosaurus that the real thing didn't have. Again, however, it has been proposed for a relative, in this case the dromaeosaurid ("raptor") Sinornithosaurus (Xu et al., 1999). This claim was made based on grooves found on the teeth and cavities in the jaws that were interpreted as being venom glands (Gong et al., 2009). However, another study could find no evidence of these supposed venom glands (Gianechini et al., 2011). The debate continues with some agreeing and disagreeing with the two studies. 

So, actually, other than the size of Dilophosaurus, its depiction in Jurassic Park is not entirely unfounded. Fanciful maybe, but still plausible. Next time, we'll look at some more dinosaur heads.

See also:
More dinosaurs
Jurassic Park Part 1

References
Camp, C. 'A new type of small bipedal dinosaur from the Navajo sandstone of Arizona', University of California Publications in Geological Sciences, 24 (2), pp. 39-56

Gianechini, F., Agnolin, F. and Ezcurra, M. (2011) 'A reassessment of the purported venom delivery system of the bird-like raptor Sinornithosaurus', Paläontologische Zeitschrift, 85 (1), pp. 103-107

Gong, E., Martin, L., Burnham, D. and Falk, A. (2009) 'The birdlike raptor Sinornithosaurus was venomous', Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107 (2), pp. 766-768

Holtz, T. (2012) Dinosaurs: The Most Complete Up-to-Date Encyclopedia for Dinosaur Lovers of All Ages, New York City: Random House

Shay, D. and Duncan, J. (1993) The Making of Jurassic Park, London: Boxtree Ltd

Welles, S. (1970) 'Dilophosaurus (Reptilia, Saurischia), a new name for a dinosaur', Journal of Paleontology, 57, p. 407

Xu, X., Wang, X-L, and Wu, X-C. (1999) 'A dromaeosaurid dinosaur with a filamentous integument from the Yixian Formation of China', Nature, 401, pp. 262-266

A History of Horror 1: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (2005)

Time for something completely different. This will be the first part of a history of horror films from the 1890s to the present day. These will not be reviews as such, though I will be giving my opinions on each. It will examine some of the key horror movies and franchises from the good ones to the....not-so-good ones. There may even be some fantasy and sci-fi included as well. Whilst I will try to keep them spoiler-free, I cannot guarantee it. With that being said, let's move onto some somnambulism...

We start our journey in the silent era in 1920 with the release of the German film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, directed by Robert Wiene and based on a screenplay by Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer. 

Plot

The film starts with Francis (played by Friedrich Fehér) telling a story about himself and his fiancé Jane (played by Lil Dagover). Within this story, Francis, Jane and their friend Alan (played by Hans von Twardowski) visit a carnival. There they encounter the mysterious Dr. Caligari (played by Werner Krause) and quiet sleepwalker Cesare (played by Conrad Weidt) who can predict the future. Alan, who thinks it's all a bunch of hoohah, asks Cesare when he will die. Cesare answers tomorrow. Francis and Jane get creeped out by this and want to go back home but Alan, being the blithering idiot that he is, still thinks it's all one big joke...until his dead body is found the following morning. Francis and Jane are convinced Caligari and Cesare are involved and decide to investigate, where they discover that all is not what it seems...

Although this wasn't the earliest horror film, it is often regarded as being the first true, serious horror movie. Horror up to this point wasn't taken very seriously and treated like a pantomime - more to entertain and make people laugh than to scare them. It also introduced the idea of a twist ending to cinema, although this came about by mistake. The producers ordered the filmmakers to change the original ending to make it less scary. The visual style is very expressionist and surreal, with slanted and pointed angles and clever use of shadows and contrasts. The movie is in the public domain meaning anyone can watch it for free, just type it into youtube.

My thoughts: Good film. I like the sinister atmosphere it creates and Werner Krause is brilliant as Caligari.

An apparent sequel was made in 1989 Dr. Caligari but I haven't seen it yet so I won't comment on it. Instead we will fast forward 85 years to...

2005's The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, a sound remake of the original directed by David Lee Fisher.

Plot

The film follows the same story as the original with no major changes except with the addition of dialogue and different actors: Judson Pearce Morgan as Francis, Daamen J. Krall as Caligari, Doug Jones as Cesare, Lauren Birkell as Jane and Neil Hopkins as Allen.

It was initially shown at the Screamfest Film Festival in October 2005 where it won some awards, notably one for special effects because they greenscreened the background from the original behind the actors (personally I don't think that was particularly award-worthy - if anything, I think it's lazy).

My thoughts: I didn't really like this one. It felt empty compared to the original with little emotion being shown by the actors, dialogue taken word-for-word from the original which doesn't work in a talkie, and annoying facial shots. It was too "arty" for me.

Next time we will look at the first Dracula movie...well, sort of...

See also:

More horror

Age of the Dinosaurs

The period of time that the dinosaurs lived in is called the Mesozoic (Middle Life) Era. It started after the great mass extinction at the end of the Permian that wiped out 90% of marine and 70 % of terrestrial life on Earth, 252.2 million years ago (Benton, 2005). The era is split into three periods: the Triassic (252.2-201.3 MYA), the Jurassic (201.3-145 MYA) and the Cretaceous (145-66 MYA). The era ended with the mass extinction that wiped out the non-avian dinosaurs as well as other large prehistoric reptiles like the pterosaurs and the mosasaurs. In this post, we will look at an overview of the three periods.

Dinosaurs appeared towards the end of the Triassic. The world was very different to today. There were forests of conifers, cycads and horsetails that grew near water. Ferns grew over the ground. There was no grass and no flowering plants. Early crocodiles such as Protosuchus (First Crocodile) (Brown, 1934) lived mostly on land. Mammals appeared but they were small and insignificant at this point. Bizarre lizard-like reptiles like Kuehneosaurus (Kuehn's Lizard) (Robinson, 1962) glided from branch to branch chasing insects. Other lizard-like reptiles like Clevosaurus (Gloucestershire Lizard) (Swinton, 1939) scurried along the ground. Dinosaurs of this time were primitive and precursors to the later, more famous descendants, for example, Plateosaurus (Flat Lizard) (Meyer, 1837) was an ancestor of the great sauropods and Procompsognathus (Before Delicate Jaw) (Fraas, 1913) paved the way for the awe-inspiring carnivorous theropods.

The Jurassic is when things really got exciting. The giant sauropod dinosaurs such as Apatosaurus (Deceptive Lizard) (Marsh, 1877) and Brachiosaurus (Arm Lizard) (Riggs, 1903) were the dominant herbivores. The earliest birds, such as Archaeopteryx (Ancient Wing) (Meyer, 1861) evolved. The earliest described dinosaur Megalosaurus (Great Lizard) (Buckland, 1824) attacked the peaceful plant-eaters such as the early stegosaur Dacentrurus (Spiky Tail) (Lucas, 1902). Conifers, cycads, horsetails and tree ferns were some of the plants that grew at the time and were eaten by dinosaurs like Cetiosaurus (Whale Lizard) (Owen, 1842). Pterosaurs such as Rhamphocephalus (Beak Head) (Seeley, 1880) soared overhead. Mammals were still relatively small and insignificant.

The Cretaceous is when the dinosaurs reached their heyday. Whilst ferns, horsetails, conifers and cycads continued to dominate the landscape, the first flowering plants such as magnolias and roses flourished. The giant sauropods declined as bigger, badder predators such as Tyrannosaurus (Tyrant Lizard) (Osborn, 1905) and Albertosaurus (Alberta Lizard) (Osborn, 1905) appeared and were replaced with ornithopods like Iguanodon (Iguana Tooth) (Mantell, 1825). Birds, the only dinosaurs to survive to the present day, diversified during the Cretaceous, sharing the skies with giant toothless pterosaurs. Well-known dinosaurs like Triceratops (Three-Horned Face) (Marsh, 1889) lived alongside large herds of hadrosaurs like Corythosaurus (Helmeted Lizard) (Brown, 1914) and Parasaurolophus (Near Lizard Crest) (Parks, 1922). Fast-running meat-eaters like Troodon (Wounding Tooth) (Leidy, 1856) emerged. Mammals became bigger, about the size of a badger, and became dangerous - with one Repenomamus (Reptile Mammal) (Li et al., 2000) known to have eaten dinosaurs! (Hu et al., 2005)

And that is a very basic outline of the Mesozoic Era. Next time, we'll take a look at the landscape of Earth during this time. However, coming up next will be something completely unrelated to dinosaurs. 

See also:
More dinosaurs
Geochronology
Life before the Dinosaurs

References
Benton, M. (2005) When Life Nearly Died: The Greatest Mass Extinction of all Time, London: Thames and Hudson

Brown, B. (1914) 'Corythosaurus casuarius, a new crested dinosaur from the Belly River Cretaceous, with provisional classification of the family Trachodontidae', Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 33, pp. 559-565

Brown, B. (1934) 'A change of names', Science, 79 (2039), p. 80

Buckland, W. (1824) 'Notice on the Megalosaurus or great Fossil Lizard of Stonesfield', Transactions of the Geological Society of London, 2 (1), pp. 390-396

Fraas, E. (1913) 'Die neuesten Dinosaurierfunde in der schwäbischen Trias [The newest dinosaur finds in the Swabian Trias]', Naturwissenschaften, 1 (45), pp. 1097-1100

Hu, Y., Meng, J., Wang, Y. and Li, C. (2005) 'Large Mesozoic mammals fed on young dinosaurs', Nature, 433 (7022), pp. 149-152

Leidy, J. (1856) 'Notice of remains of extinct reptiles and fishes, discovered by Dr. F. V. Hayden in the badlands of the Judith River, Nebraska Territory', Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 8, pp. 72-73

Li, J., Wang, Y., Wang, Y. and Li, C. (2000) 'A new family of primitive mammal from the Mesozoic of western Liaoning, China', Chinese Science Bulletin, 46 (9), pp. 782-785

Lucas, F. (1902) 'Paleontological notes. The generic name Omosaurus: A new generic name for Stegosaurus marshi', Science, 16 (402), p. 435

Mantell, G. (1825) 'Notice on the Iguanodon, a newly discovered fossil reptile, from the sandstone of Tilgate forest, in Sussex', Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 115, pp. 179-186

Marsh, O. (1877) 'Notice on some new dinosaurian reptiles from the Jurassic Formation', American Journal of Science, 3 (14), pp. 514-516

Marsh, O. (1889) 'Notice of gigantic horned Dinosauria from the Cretaceous', American Journal of Science, 38, pp. 173-175

Meyer, H. (1837) 'Mittheilungen, an Professor Bronn gerichtet [Communications, sent to Professor Bronn], Neues Jahrbuch für Mineralogie, Geognosie, Geologie und Petrefaktenkunde, 1837, pp. 314-317

Meyer, H. (1861) Archaeopteryx litographica (Vogel-Feder) und Pterodactylus von Solenhofen

Osborn, H. (1905) 'Tyrannosaurus and other Cretaceous carnivorous dinosaurs', Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 21 (14), pp. 259-265

Owen, R. (1842) 'Report on British Fossil reptiles, Pt. II', Reports of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, 11, pp. 60-204

Parks, W. (1922) 'Parasaurolophus walkeri, a new genus and species of crested trachodont dinosaur', University of Toronto Studies, Geology Series, 13, pp. 1-12

Riggs, E. (1903) 'Brachiosaurus altithorax, the largest known dinosaur', American Journal of Science, 4 (15), pp. 299-306

Robinson, P. (1962) 'Gliding lizards from the upper Keuper of Great Britain', Proceedings of the Geological Society of London, 1601, pp. 137-146

Seeley, H. (1880) 'On the Rhamphocephalus prestwichi, Seeley, an ornithosaurian from the Stonesfield Slate of Kineton', Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, 36, pp. 27-30

Swinton, W. (1939) 'A new Triassic rhynchocephalian from Gloucestershire', Annals and Magazine of Natural History: Zoology, Biology and Geology, 4, pp. 591-594