- The Jurassic World franchise has brought to life some
of the most iconic dinosaur species of all time.
I'm sure that we all have our favorites.
Perhaps yours is the giant, yet gentle, brachiosaurus,
and how its first appearance on screen
will forever be hailed as one
of the most awe-inspiring moments in cinema history.
Or maybe it's the highly intelligent velociraptors
and the heart-racing suspense we all feel
whenever they cleverly escape
from their electrified enclosures.
On this adventure, we're going to take a historical look
at some of the film's most beloved dinosaurs
by admiring the fossils they left behind
and the wonder they bring to our imaginations.
(stately music)
To truly understand the size and magnitude of a dinosaur,
you must simply put yourself in the presence
of one's skeleton.
Perhaps the best place in the nation to do just that
is the Chicago Field Museum.
This renowned location maintains one of
the world's largest collections of artifacts and specimens,
and it's their iconic hall of dinosaurs
that will make the perfect backdrop for this episode.
Joining me on this journey is Brian Switak.
Brian is Jurassic World's resident paleontologist.
He has participated in numerous dinosaur digs
across the United States, has authored several books,
and is considered an expert
when it comes to prehistoric creatures.
Upon entering the Hall of Dinosaurs,
we were immediately drawn
to one of Brian's all-time favorites.
Cool.
- [Brian] Beautiful, isn't it?
- Stegosaurus.
One of the true icons from the Jurassic period,
and of course a dinosaur that we recognize
from the film franchise.
Now, even as a plant eater,
this is a pretty dominant creature
to have walked our planet,
and it's got some really cool features.
The plates and the spikes, what are those plates for?
- Well, there's a lot of different ideas.
So, when it was first found,
it was thought those plates laid flat over its back.
That's why stegosaurus means roofed lizard.
Later, they found better specimens.
Those plates were sticking straight up,
so they rearranged those plates,
but that only really deepened the mystery
about what this animal was doing.
So at first, it seemed they were for thermal regulation.
That stegosaurus could turn his body toward the sun,
heat up in the morning.
If it got too hot, turn away from the sun,
dump all that heat.
Turns out that's probably not the case.
Seems more for display, so this is for looking big,
intimidating, maybe showing off to potential mates.
You know, trying to scare away rivals.
So, the mystery remains.
Like, we know that they were for something,
but the question is what?
- Now, during the Jurassic period,
this dinosaur had potential predators like the allosaurus
and if you were to defend yourself against an allosaurus,
obviously that tail would be the weapon of choice, right?
- Oh yeah, that's a pretty good way to do it.
- So, you've got those four spikes.
They're covered with keratin in life,
so it's the same stuff that covers your fingernails,
what your fingernails are made of.
So, they would have been even more imposing
while this animal was alive,
and he would swing that tail, swing those spikes,
about 40 meters per second.
So, that's enough to pierce through bone.
And we actually have an allosaurus bone
with a hole in it just the right size
for a stegosaurus tail spike.
So, we think that this particular carnivore
was trying to sneak up and then got
the business end of stegosaurus.
Walked away limping and learned his lesson.
- Wow, crazy.
Okay, now when I think of stegosaurus's tail,
it certainly reminds me of that scene
in Jurassic Park: The Lost World
when Sarah Harding has to dive into that log.
The spikes come down on top.
Certainly one of my favorite scenes,
but what is your favorite scene that stegosaurus appears in?
- I think mine has to be just a couple of moments before
when she finds that baby,
because as formidable as this animal is,
it still had to hatch out of an egg,
it still had to grow up, and we know they were cute.
They had big eyes, they had the puppy-dog face.
A baby stegosaurus would have been absolutely adorable,
and I think the movie got that just right.
- Okay, well, let's move on from the Jurassic period
and head toward the Cretaceous
and see some other of those pretty cool dinosaurs.
- Absolutely, let's do it.
- Over the course of millions of years,
as the Jurassic transitioned into the Cretaceous period,
evolution gave rise to some of the most dominant dinosaurs
to have ever roamed our planet.
And one of them certainly needs no new introduction.
Wow.
Triceratops.
Certainly one of my favorites, and without question,
one of the most recognizable dinosaurs
throughout history and, of course, the Jurassic franchise.
- I mean, what would Jurassic be
without at least the triceratops?
- Right, right?
I mean, triceratops has pretty much been
in every single movie in some way, shape, or form.
And when we look at this dinosaur, as we know,
it's an herbivore, but it's such a dominant figure
in all of dinosaur history,
and as people look at it, you think,
well, obviously the horns and the frill.
Let's talk about about those features.
Now, when I look at the horns,
obviously, that's used in battle
or to defend itself against predators,
but the frill is the one that
I think probably has the most question.
- Absolutely, and there's been a lot of ideas
about what that frill was for,
and it seems to be related to combat,
which you just brought up.
So, these dinosaurs,
rather than fighting other species of dinosaurs,
they're most often fighting with each other.
- Well, when we walked up to the skeleton,
we looked at it and said, wow. Like, such an iconic dinosaur
throughout the entire film franchise,
and certainly for me, the first moment
when Grant and Sattler, Tim and Lex, Dr. Malcolm,
they all walk up and see the sick triceratops
and Grant lays down on top of it,
and I just absolutely loved that moment.
It was the first moment where human contacted dinosaur.
I think it's a moment that none of us will ever forget.
How 'bout you?
What's your favorite triceratops moment?
- I'm gonna go with a gross one.
Triceratops isn't actually in the scene,
but the pile of dino droppings,
because that makes it a real animal.
Like, dinosaurs pooped just like any other animal does,
and, you know, they were looking for what it ate
to see why it was sick.
It was that biological twist to it
that turned it more into a real animal
and not just like a prehistoric monster.
- So, Brian, everyone loves dinosaur battles,
and when we were talking stegosaurus versus allosaurus
in the Jurassic period,
certainly the battle everyone wants to see
in the Cretaceous with triceratops versus tyrannosaurus rex.
But how often would these two titans have actually clashed?
- Uh, it did happen, but probably not
in the way that you might think.
So, it's probably not adult T. rex
versus adult triceratops very often.
That would have been incredibly dangerous
for an adult tyrannosaur to go after an adult triceratops.
It's like a lone wolf going after an adult bison
or a lone lion going after an elephant.
If that carnivore gets hurt and it can't hunt anymore,
that's it for them.
So, the T. rex is probably much like a modern carnivore
in that sneak.
It was probably going after the juveniles
and the babies, and all these little triceratops
that haven't grown up yet,
and that might be part of the reason why
we don't have very many young ones.
There's only one baby triceratops known.
Part of that reason that we don't find them
is that they're getting eaten.
- Now, I know if I was a baby triceratops,
I would certainly be doing my best to avoid
a predator like tyrannosaurus rex,
which is probably a good point for us to transition
into seeing what the audience has all showed up for.
Are you ready?
- I am so ready.
- Here we go.
This was the moment we had both been waiting for.
The chance to see the world's biggest, best-preserved,
and most complete T. rex skeleton
before its new exhibit officially opened to the public.
The one, the only,
Sue.
There it is.
The most complete,
the largest tyrannosaurus rex skeleton
ever on Earth.
How 'bout that?
- They say in the flesh, only not.
- Yes, just with the bones.
Well, here's what I think we should do, Brian.
Let's start at the tail and move our way towards the skull.
In total, Sue measures 40 feet in length
and stands 13 feet tall at the hips.
To walk alongside this skeleton is absolutely breathtaking.
And it really brings into perspective
just how big a predator like tyrannosaurus rex truly was.
Wow.
Look at the size of this tail.
It is absolutely massive.
So big, it barely fits in the room.
- Right, so, Sue is about 40 feet long
and about half of that length is tail.
It's like it's a giant seesaw just with teeth at one end.
- Okay, so, basically for balance.
- That's right, counterbalancing all that neat stuff
on the other end of the animal.
- Okay, so tail, exciting, works for balance,
but then we get into the feet.
Guys, look at these feet.
Absolutely massive.
Can you imagine getting stomped on by a T. rex?
- I'd rather not, really.
- Was T. rex really capable of moving 32 miles an hour?
- Not quite.
I'd say 12 to 25.
- 12 to 25. - But when you consider
how fast humans can run,
that's still far more than needed to outpace us.
- Okay, now, certainly the feet
of tyrannosaurus rex played such a crucial role
throughout all the Jurassic films.
Just being able to add suspense like in Jurassic Park
when the T. rex walks into the scene
and that foot squishes down into the mud.
Of course, in The Lost World,
when that one guy gets stomped on
and gets stuck in the foot, that was pretty crazy.
And then, of course, in Fallen Kingdom,
I loved that moment when carnotaurus went and pinned it down
and inflicted that death bleed.
- Exactly, aside from walking,
that's what these feet are good for.
Think about birds today, how they use their feet.
They do very much the same thing.
You pin down with that foot
and then you put the jaws to work.
- Right.
Sue is around 90% complete,
containing 224 of the 321 known bones in a T. rex skeleton,
including the furcula, or wishbone,
and the gastralia, which is a set of rib-like bones
that are believed to have helped Sue breathe.
Let's see what it's like to look down the snout
of tyrannosaurus rex.
Look at that skull.
- Look really dead on it,
because T. rex, one of the neat things about this skull,
binocular vision.
This was a dinosaur who could look directly at you.
Not from the side, but stare straight down.
- Right, now, what about the theory
of visual acuity being based on movement?
- So, that was based upon frogs.
That you could sneak up on a frog,
is I'm sure you're familiar with.
- Sure. - They don't see you,
because they can't see behind them.
So, because they use frog DNA in the films,
that got transposed over to T. rex, so.
If you were back in the Cretaceous period,
68 million years ago just walking through the woods,
having a nice time, they would see you.
If you went stalk still, they'd still see you,
and smell you, as well.
- Okay, so that sense of smell, that movement,
I love that moment.
So much suspense in Jurassic Park
when the T. rex comes and just (exhales).
Dr. Grant's hat blows off of his head.
So, the T. rex really would have been able
to smell you in that moment.
- Oh, absolutely, that was T. rex deciding not
to have a snack.
- Ah, I see.
Well, I guess it worked out pretty well for the film,
but when you look at Sue,
look at the structure of this skull.
It's massive, and you can see
how a human could easily fit right
into the mouth of this dinosaur.
- All of that is just pulverizing bite forces.
We're talking about 8,000 pounds of pressure.
So, almost if this animal stepped on you,
that's the same amount of weight
that it's putting behind those jaws.
- Okay, so, if the stomp didn't kill you,
the jaws would come in and finish the job.
When you stand beneath Sue
and look up into that mouth filled with teeth,
it's a horrifying thought to picture the skeleton
fully fleshed out with muscle and skin.
(dinosaur roaring)
Well, Brian, thank you so much for leading us
on this journey today where we looked at some
of the icons from the Jurassic franchise.
From stegosaurus to triceratops
and ultimately landing on the king of the dinosaurs,
tyrannosaurus rex.
I'm Coyote Peterson, be brave.
Stay wild.
We'll see ya on the next Jurassic World adventure.
Sue is considered to be the crown jewel
of the Field Museum's collections,
and for myself, Brian, and the Jurassic World Explorers,
it was an honor to visit this exhibit before its opening
and it now our incredible pleasure to announce
that Sue's new exhibit will officially open to the public
on Friday, December 21st.
With the discovery of dinosaur skeletons like Sue,
it's easy to see how creative minds have been inspired
to bring these prehistoric icons back to life
through films like Jurassic World.
If you love the Jurassic franchise as much as we do,
then make sure to go back and watch the films
from Universal Home Entertainment
that sparked an adventure 65 million years in the making.
This collection is now available
on Blu-Ray, DVD, and digital download.
Hey, dinosaur fans!
Travel back in time to last week's episode
as we take you behind the scenes
at the Chicago Field Museum to get up close
with some fascinating fossils.
And don't forget, subscribe!
And click the notification bell
so you can join the Jurassic World Explorers
on our next prehistoric adventure.
(majestic music)
(animals bellowing)
(bird calling)