The Animals of Jurassic Park and Jurassic World

Jurassic Park

Throughout the Jurassic Park franchise we've been introduced to a wide variety of dinosaurs and other extinct life cloned by InGen. Through comic books, video games, and apps the number of animals present in the franchise has steadily grown. Today I thought it would be interesting to make a non-definitive list of the animals present in Jurassic Park and World. However, I am only taking definitive canon animals - so only animals from the books and movies - and, of course, I will likely through accident omit some. If I have forgotten any animals please feel free to tell me in the comments. So this list will feature three parks: the book Jurassic Park, the movie Jurassic Park, and Jurassic World. 

Book Jurassic Park

For animals in the version of Jurassic Park we're going to animals present in the two books written by Michael Crichton - Jurassic Park and The Lost World. If an animal is present on Isla Sorna we can easily assume that they were intended to sometime be transported to Isla Nublar, and then appear in Jurassic Park. From the first book it is easy to find the animals which were intended to be on display just before the Park opened as we get a population table detailing all the animals. This table reads: Tyrannosaurs, Maiasaurs, Stegosaurs, Triceratops, Procompsognathids, Othnielia, Velociraptors, Apatosaurs, Hadrosaurs, Dilophosaurs, Pterosaurs, Hypsilophodontids, Euoplocephalids, and Micrceratops. Through dialogue we find out that the Hypsilophodons are actually Dryosaurus and the Pterosaurs are Cearadactylus. In the lab scene Dr. Wu comments that they are preparing to breed a Coelurus. Finally the characters find a large dragonfly and Alan Grant comments that it is likely a cloned prehistoric dragonfly. There could be various possibilities to which species it is and two are the most likeliest: Meganeura and Meganeuropsis. Both these dragonflies lived millions of years before the dinosaurs evolved and could grow to the size of gulls. As more well-preserved Meganeura fossils have been found we can assume that this means that the dragonfly is Meganeura. Some editions of Jurassic Park change Apatosaurus to Camarasaurus and Microceratops (now called Microceratus) to Callovosaurus, however, most editions keep it to Apatosaurus and Microceratops so our count will only include these names. 

Hadrosaurus, Maiasaurus, and Edmontosaurus looked something like this

The Lost World includes several more species which we can assume would eventually make their way into Jurassic Park if the events of the novel had transpired differently. In some editions of the novel there is a map of Isla Sorna with images of the dinosaurs which make an appearance. These dinosaurs are: Pachycephalosaurus, Parasaurolophus, and Carnotaurus. Some extra dinosaurs make an appearance which aren't mentioned on the map. A body washes onto the coast early in the story which Richard Levine identifies as an Ornitholestes. When he first arrives on Isla Sorna he spots a small herbivorous dinosaur which he identifies as Mussaurus. The final dinosaur is only mentioned but not seen. An InGen document makes reference to Gallimimus (possibly due to the dinosaur's appearance in the first movie).

Carnotaurus

Now we can make a solid judgement about what animals were to be displayed in the book version of Jurassic Park: Tyrannosaurus, Maiasaurus, Stegosaurus, Triceratops, Procompsognathus, Othnielia (which is now called by scientists Othnieliasaurus), Velociraptor, Apatosaurus, Hadrosaurus, Dilophosaurus, Cearadactylus, Dryosaurus, Euoplocephalus, Microceratus, Coelurus, Meganura, Pachycephalosaurus, Parasaurolophus, Carnotaurus, Ornitholestes, Gallimimus, and Mussaurus. 

Film Jurassic Park

Looking at the movies is far trickier than the books as you have background references as well. First let's look at the dinosaurs directly seen in the first movie. We have: Velociraptor, Brachiosaurus, Parasaurolophus, Triceratops, Tyrannosaurus, and Gallimimus. There are many referenced dinosaurs though. You can at times spot a map of Jurassic Park and the map contains a few extra dinosaurs: Segisaurus, Proceratosaurus, Metriacanthosaurus, Herrerasaurus, and Baryonyx. When Nedry steals the embryos we spot another dinosaur: Stegosaurus. A little side note; Stegosaurus and Tyrannosaurus are both misspelled in this scene but strangely Metriacanthosaurus is not. I am one of many fans who do not consider Telltale's Jurassic Park: The Game canon so we won't be involving those extinct animals. 

The Park Map

As is the case with the books we can assume that animals present on Isla Sorna would eventually be on display in Jurassic Park. The ones which we do know the identity are in The Lost World: Jurassic Park (but did not appear in the first movie): Mamenchisaurus, Pachycephalosaurus, Pteranodon, and Edmontosaurus (albeit as a skull in the Rex nest). The small green carnivore is either a Procomsognathus or Compsognathus. Fans are divided over which it is: the character who identifies it as Procomsognathus is unreliable, but the novel uses Procomsognathus instead of Compsognathus. For the purpose of this post we'll go for what the Jurassic Park Wiki says, and they go for Compsognathus. Through Tembo's guide and the trailer screen a pterosaur called Geosternbergia is seen. Finally, in a deleted scene Ankylosaurus is mentioned but they later appear in Jurassic Park 3 anyway.

Jurassic Park 3 features a few extra dinosaurs not previously seen in the two prior movies. As mentioned earlier Ankylosaurus is one of these dinosaurs. Corythosaurus also appears and originally it was meant to appear in The Lost World as well. We also have a Ceratosaurus appearing in the movie. Now we come to the Spinosaurus. If you got to one of the two promotional websites for Jurassic World, the Masrani Global one, and type in 'Indominus' at the terminal button you get access to a whole bunch of Easter eggs. One of which leads you to this screen saying this:

OWNER: WU, HENRY
DATE: 02/20/2003 1410 CST
SUBJECT: RUFFLED FEATHERS
NOTES: I'M CALLING THIS THE 'COMMON COLD OF GENETICS'. WE CAN'T CURE THIS ONE SOON I'M SURE. BECAUSE WE'RE ACTIVELY MANIPULATING AND MUTATING THE ANIMALS' GENES, ADDING FROG, BIRD AND REPTILE DNA, WE CREATE WHAT IS KNOWN AS 'NULL ALLELE'. THE DINOSAURS CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT SOMETHING ADDED TO THEIR CODE SO FOR NOW WE'RE STUCK WITH SCALES. MAYBE MY RESEARCH INTO GENE SPLICING WILL UNEARTH THIS PROBLEM, IT CERTAINLY PROVED ITS LIMITLESS CAPABILITIES WITH THAT ACCIDENT WE LEFT ON SORNA.
---END LOG---

This confirms two fan theories. The first is why the dinosaurs don't have feathers; splicing dinosaur DNA with that of amphibians led to the allele which produces feathers to not work. The second confirms why the Spinosaurus in JP3 was so different to the real life version. Wu specifically uses the wording 'my research into gene splicing will unearth this problem, it certainly proved its limitless capabilities with that accident we left on Sorna.' A fan theory was that the Spinosaurus was a hybrid similar to that of the later Indominus Rex. As a result the Spinosaurus seems to be a mistake and not intended for Jurassic Park. Dialogue in JP3 mentions that Spinosaurus 'wasn't on InGen's list' indicating that Spinosaurus did not seem to be intended at all for Jurassic Park prior to the events of the first movie.

For the extinct animals in the film Jurassic Park we can guess that they are: Tyrannosaurus, Velociraptor, Triceratops, Brachiosaurus, Parasaurolophus, Dilophosaurus, Pteranodon, Geosternbergia, Edmontosaurus, Gallimimus, Segisaurus, Proceratosaurus, Metriacanthosaurus, Herrerasaurus, Baryonyx, Stegosaurus, Pachycephalosaurus, Corythosaurus, Ceratosaurus, Mamenchisaurus, and Compsognathus.

Jurassic World

Luckily for us finding most of the extinct animals in Jurassic World is a somewhat easy task. The promotional website, here, tracks quite a few of them. They are: Tyrannosaurus, Stegosaurus, Velociraptor, Triceratops, Edmontosaurus, Apatosaurus, Baryonyx, Pteranodon, Dimorphodon, Metriacanthosaurus, Suchomimus, Parasaurolophus, Ankylosaurus, Microceratus, Gallimimus and Mosasaurus. A Dilophosaurus appears as a Hologram and Claire mentions Archaeornithomimus. As Archaeornithomimus is such an obscure dinosaur in the context she says it in I am certain this must be one of the dinosaurs in Jurassic World. In that same scene a call from a Brachiosaurus can be heard, and Brachiosaurus was meant to appear but it was cut very last minute. In the trailer for Fallen Kingdom Brachiosaurus does appear so we have physical confirmation that Jurassic World had Brachiosaurus. An eagle eyed fan pointed out another Easter egg to the rest of the community which brought to the attention of everyone several other dinosaurs in Jurassic World. It was this promotional image:

the Holoscreen

This is the screen which creates holograms of Jurassic World's creatures so it would make sense to only have the animals present in the park on the screen. You can see: Allosaurus, Spinosaurus, Deinonychus, Elaphrosaurus, Hoplitosaurus, Lesothosaurus, Nipponosaurus, and Plesiosaurus. Jurassic World also has a somewhat accurate Spinosaurus skeleton as decoration which can further suggest that the JP3 Spinosaurus was a mistake; although I would like to think that the Sorna Spino inspired Masrani to have an actual Spino in Jurassic World. Finally we have the Indominus; although we later find out why it is bred there seemed genuine plans in the movie to put it on display.

Finally we have the Fallen Kingdom trailers. The behind the scenes trailer had a Stygimoloch skull but there is an issue with this. Recently quite a bit of the palaeontological community views Stygimoloch as a young Pachycephalosaurus. We don't know at the moment if they are treating it as a separate species or a juvenile.

I've attached the new trailer so we can run through it together to tick off dinosaurs not already mentioned. At 0.42 we have a Procompsognathus/Compsognathus but I would guess it's the same species as the one from the previous movies making it Compsognathus in our list. 1.28 we have the Carnotaurus which fans have long been eagerly awaiting to appear. 1.51 we have a theropod which many people have been debating on what it is. Based on the head shape, and the fact that it was mentioned as being a hologram, I would guess this is Allosaurus. At 2.07 we have a ceratopsid in the water and based on the skull I would guess this is Styracosaurus. 

As Fallen Kingdom is not out yet I would advise to take this list with a pinch of salt. So these animals are: Tyrannosaurus, Stegosaurus, Velociraptor, Triceratops, Edmontosaurus, Apatosaurus, Baryonyx, Pteranodon, Dimorphodon, Metriacanthosaurus, Suchomimus, Parasaurolophus, Ankylosaurus, Microceratus, Gallimimus, Mosasaurus, Dilophosaurus, Archaornithomimus, Brachiosaurus, Indominus, Allosaurus, Spinosaurus, Deinonychus, Elaphrosaurus, Hoplitosaurus, Lesothosaurus, Nipponosaurus, Plesiosaurus, Compsognathus, Carnotaurus, Stygimoloch, and Styracosaurus.

Thank you for reading and I hope you found this list informative. The Jurassic Park series has so many animals I have bound to have missed one or two so if you spotted any not mentioned please leave a comment. For future updates please see our Facebook or get me on Twitter @LewisTwiby. Thanks for reading and I hope to see you again.