Putting it mildly, the world has gone pretty crazy so far this year. With people now looking ponderously out of their windows and wondering what apocalyptic event will befall us next, it should come as no surprise that, according to scientists, we are now officially in a window of time where technology can bring the dinosaurs back. The moment for a real-lifeJurassic Parkhas been stated previously as being sometime between right this very second and 2025.
This wild information comes courtesy of apanel published five years agoas of this month, with the scientist who inspiredJurassic Park’sAlan Grant no less revealing that the scientific community expected technology to be capable of bringing dinosaurs back into existence sometime between today and five years from right now.
The scientist’s name isDr. Jack Horner, and at the time he was discussing his attempts at creating something which he called the “chickenosaurus,” because the DNA he had been studying was rooted in chickens, an ancestor to the dinosaur. Honestly, that sounds even more terrifying than anything we have seen in theJurassic Parkfranchise. Horner was a consultant on theJurassic Parkmovies, and at the time was studying DNA of dinosaur remains, believing them to be the key to bringing them back to life.
“I have tried many times toextract DNA from a dinosaurand we’ve always failed. We think it’s because the DNA molecule is huge and it’s not very stable. It just comes apart too easily.”
Perhaps now is the time to stop being so preoccupied with whether or not they could, and stop and think about whether or not they should.
During the 5-year-old panel, Horner was less focused onbringing back accurate dinosaursand more focused on splicing and mashing different bits of DNA together to recreate something like a dinosaur for the modern world. “Actually, the wings and hands are not as difficult,” Horner said, adding that a “chickensoraus” is well on its way to becoming reality. “The tail is the biggest project,” he said. “But on the other hand, we have been able to do some things recently that have given us hope that it won’t take too long.”
Splicing and mashing together different bits of DNA to create something brand new? Isn’t that just the plot forJurassic World? Get ready to start running.
Horner continued saying that “birds are living dinosaurs.” Horner has in fact tried to merge birds with dinosaurs before, only this time on the silver screen, with the scientist suggesting to Steven Spielberg the addition of feathers to the velociraptors. Spielberg ruled against it and decided to go for entertainment value instead.
“Steven and I had a lot of arguments about whether the velociraptors should have colors and be colorful. He won all of those arguments. He said a technicolor feather dinosaur is not going to scare anyone. So, they’re grey and featherless.”
According to Horner, once the nightmare-inducing chicken-dinosaur crossbreed has been cracked, essentially meaning that a chicken with dinosaur teeth and an alligator tail now roams the earth, he expects that the next step will be something more akin to a velociraptor.
While there does not seem to have been much more development on the creation of dinosaurs (would they even tell us if there had been?) the fact that we are now within this 5-year window, and with 2020 being one of the most unpredictable years of all time, means we should all expect to see the ominous silhouette of a Tyrannosaurus Rex on the horizon sometime soon.
TheJurassic Worldfranchise is set to continue soon with the upcomingJurassic World: Dominion. The third movie in theJurassic Worldseries, and sixth movie in theJurassicfranchise overall,Jurassic World: Dominionis being helmed bySafety Not Guaranteedand the firstJurassic Worlddirector Colin Trevorrow, who wrote the screenplay with Emily Carmichael. The plot of the movie will be based on a story by Trevorrow and his writing partner, Derek Connolly. As with its predecessors, Frank Marshall and Patrick Crowley will produce the film, with Trevorrow and director and Hollywood icon Steven Spielberg acting as executive producers.
While it was rumored thatJurassic World: Dominionwould be the last entry in the series, producer Frank Marshall recently cleared things up with a definitive “no” whilst promoting his new documentaryLaurel Canyonrecently. Marshall then offered a little more detail saying, “It’s the start of a new era… The dinosaurs are now on the mainland amongst us, and they will be for quite some time, I hope.”
The previous installment,Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, picked up three years since the theme park and luxury resort Jurassic World was destroyed by dinosaurs out of containment. With Isla Nublar now abandoned by humans, the surviving dinosaurs must fend for themselves in the jungles. When the island’s dormant volcano begins roaring to life, Owen and Claire mount a campaign to rescue the remaining dinosaurs from this extinction-level event. Owen is driven to find Blue, his lead raptor who’s still missing in the wild, and Claire has grown a respect for these creatures she now makes her mission. Arriving on the unstable island as lava begins raining down, their expedition uncovers a conspiracy that could return our entire planet to a perilous order not seen since prehistoric times.
Fallen Kingdomends with a number of the creatures being smuggled off of the island for a black-market auction which, of course, ends terribly. With the dinosaurs now let loose upon the world, the likes of Dr. Alan Grant, Dr. Ian Malcolm, and Dr. Ellie Sattler are brought back into the fray to help stop the prehistoric beasts.
Jurassic World: Dominionstars an ensemble cast including Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Jake Johnson, Omar Sy, Daniella Pineda, Justice Smith, Isabella Sermon and BD Wong reprising their roles from previous movies in the franchise, and they are joined by Mamoudou Athie, DeWanda Wise, Dichen Lachman, and Scott Haze.
Filming on the movie recently started up again, withJurassic World: Dominioncurrently scheduled to hit theaters on June 28, 2025. The panel in which Horner made his prediction comes fromTalks at Google.
