- Dinosaurs, (dinosaur growls)
dinosaurs, (dinosaur screeches)
dinosaurs.
We all love to see dinosaurs,
leisurely walking through ancient forests,
spitting venomous goo at Dennis Nedry,
and certainly breaking free of their electrified enclosures
to terrify panicked park goers.
But before dinosaurs could be brought to the big screen,
first the filmmakers had to know where dinosaurs came from.
So in this episode, we're going to take
you on a journey through time
that began 250 million years ago.
Over the last quarter century,
the beloved films in the Jurassic franchise
have influenced and inspired a countless number
of dinosaur fanatics to become paleontologists.
And while we would all love to find and excavate a dinosaur,
there's a great deal of knowledge that must be learned
before one can venture out into the field
and search for prehistoric treasure.
Today, the Jurassic World explorers and I
are visiting the renowned Chicago Field Museum.
As you approach the museum's Stanley Field Hall,
you immediately notice that this it the home of Maximo,
a full-skeletal cast of the biggest titanosaur
that scientist have discovered to date.
Now in its 125th year, the Field Museum
maintains one of the world's largest collections
of artifacts and specimens.
Yet this location is more than just impressive displays.
Their scientists take part in groundbreaking
research all over the world
as they drive a mission to explore,
protect, and celebrate nature and culture.
For an even more in-depth education,
the team and I will be getting a unique opportunity
to go behind the scenes and into the Field Museum's
vertebrate paleontology collections.
Dinosaur and oversize collections.
Sounds like we're in the right place.
(beeps)
Our goal is to take you on a journey
through the Mesozoic Era, known as the Age of Reptiles,
which spanned from 252 to 66 million years ago
and consisted of three main periods,
the Triassic, the Jurassic, and the Cretaceous.
I will be getting a hands-on education
by working alongside two of the museum's
finest dinosaur experts.
Brandon Peecook who specializes in the evolution
of vertebrates from the Triassic period,
and Bill Simpson, the Head of Geological Collections
and organizer of the museum's
extensive fossil vertebrate collection.
We begin in the Triassic,
where Brandon will guide us along the way.
Now this looks one terrifying
little creature form the Triassic.
What kind of dinosaur is this, Brandon?
- So this animal's name is Asilisaurus Kongwe.
And I gotta burst your bubble.
It's not a dinosaur. - This is not a dinosaur?
- This is not a dinosaur.
- I'm off to a rough start here so far today, you guys.
(laughs) - Okay, so when I back up
a second and I look at this thing,
it really looks to me like the procompsognathus
that's featured in Jurassic Park: The Lost World.
You know, the little green ones that came out
at the beginning that attacked that guy in the forest.
But you're telling me this is not a dinosaur?
- This is not a dinosaur.
This animal is as close to being a dinosaur
as you could possibly be,
but just sort of technically it's not a dinosaur.
- Is it technically a reptile? - It is a reptile.
- Okay, okay. - It is a reptile.
- So close to the archosaur lineage, then.
'Cause we've explained this in other episodes
where the dinosaurs, the birds, crocodilians
all split off from a common ancestor.
- That's right.
And so this animal is a very close cousin of the dinosaurs,
so it's on the bird side of that archosaur split.
Crocs over here, birds over here.
It's on the bird line just like all the other dinosaurs are,
but this thing just technically isn't a dinosaur.
But it's as close as you can be,
and it lived alongside some of the first dinosaurs.
- So what makes a dinosaur, a dinosaur then
if this is not a dinosaur? - And that's a great question.
So just like any group of animals,
mammals, or primates, or archosaurs like you said,
dinosaurs is a word that people use
to describe a teeny little bit of the tree of life.
And to fit into dinosaurs,
you have to have a lot of teeny little details
in your anatomy just right.
And so this animal has a lot in common with dinosaurs,
but it's missing a hole in its hips.
He's missing a little bit of bone on his ankles.
He's missing a little bit of length on this
thing here, on his arm bone, for muscles to attach.
And just those teeny details mean
we don't call it a dinosaur,
but it evolves right when they do.
It lives alongside them.
It's so close, but it's not a dinosaur.
- Now, when I look at the skull,
it looks similar to the skull
of an iguana, or maybe a monitor lizard.
And you look at those teeth and you think, yep.
That's not something you wanna run into
in a dark, rainy forest, is it?
- No, maybe not.
But I've gotta tell you something else.
If you look at those teeth real closely,
they've got teeny little serrations on them.
They look like little leaves.
We think this guy might be a plant eater,
or maybe just an omnivore. - Really?
- Yep! - Not a meat eater?
- [Brandon] Certainly not a big, ferocious killer.
- [Coyote] So that whole scenario of being attacked
by the procompsognathus may not exist with this creature?
- Maybe not.
But the thing is, if you step out of your time machine
and you're in the forest with these guys,
you probably are gonna think it's a dinosaur
and I'm not gonna fault you for it.
- It looks a lot like one.
Procompsognathus, (dinosaur hisses)
also known as the compy, was a true dinosaur
and they were aggressive pack hunters
despite only being the size of a chicken.
Armed with speed, incredible jumping skills,
and a mouthful of razor-sharp teeth,
they would work as a team to isolate
and take down much larger prey.
Very cool.
Thank you, Brandon, so much for giving us
this fascinating education. - Oh, of course.
- About a creature that looks like a dinosaur,
but is not actually a true dinosaur.
- Ah, so close though. - Man!
What we're gonna do next is meet up with Bill,
who's gonna take us forward in time to the Jurassic Period.
We're gonna take a look at some bones
from some of the icons you recognize
from the Jurassic Franchise, and definitely creatures
that we can consider true dinosaurs.
The Triassic Period spanned between 252
and 201 million years ago.
And while it proudly gave rise to the dinosaurs,
all the true giants that we recognize from the films
actually began to appear in the Jurassic Period,
which lasted from 201 to 145 million ago.
Bill, are you here? - Coyote, hold on.
I'm gonna open up an aisle.
Be right there!
- Oh, look at this.
Hey, there he is!
Whoa! - Hey, how are you?
- That's pretty cool, right?
Hey, hey!
Nice to finally meet you in person.
- [Bill] Good to meet you too.
- Thank you for having us today,
here, to the underbelly, the archives,
of the Chicago Field Museum.
- This is what we called oversized storage
where all the dinosaurs are kept.
- Yes!
Not I just worked with Brandon,
and we looked at a creature from the Triassic Period.
- Oh, very early.
Yeah.
- You're gonna lead us into the Jurassic
and then the Cretaceous.
- Yeah, let's see some good stuff.
- Okay, sounds good.
Lead the way. - All right.
- Bill oversees the care of each
and every fossil in this vast archive.
So when we told him we wanted to see some Jurassic icons,
he knew exactly where to start.
- All right, Coyote.
You wanna help me get this big bone outta here?
- Yeah.
Wow!
Sauropod bones!
And I can already see that it says brachiosaurus.
This is gonna be cool.
So I'll take my end out first,
and then you follow. - Okay.
Wow!
It's a dinosaur.
All right, crazy.
Look at that bone!
Holy mackerel, that is big.
And how cool is this?
Getting to see a bone from one of the most iconic
dinosaurs from the Jurassic franchise.
Certainly, as you guys know, it is the first dinosaur
that Grant, Sattler, and Malcolm saw
as they arrived at Jurassic Park, the brachiosaurus!
If you were to stand beside a brachiosaurus and look up,
the crest of its head would reach 40 feet into the air,
making it the tallest dinosaur in Jurassic World.
These gentle giants were considered social,
curious, and fearless in the face of predators
as their massive size was a primary means of defense.
Now, I heard you calling it brachiosaurus.
I've grown up knowing it as brachiosaurus.
- You know, there's no right pronunciation.
They're both fine. - Okay.
Brachiosaurus, brachiosaurus. - Yeah, from brachium,
Greek for arm. - Okay.
- This name means arm lizard,
and it's in reference to the fact
that unlike almost all other sauropods
that have shorter front limbs than hind limbs,
brachiosaurus is the first one found
that had long front limbs.
Thus the name brachiosaurus.
- Now what bone is it that we're looking at here?
- This is actually the right femur, the right thigh bone.
- Okay, massive! - The head would be here.
Fits into the hip socket.
And then that would be part of the knee.
- Okay, and how much does this bone weigh?
Because even moving it on this cart is a challenge.
- Yeah, it's about a half a ton.
- [Coyote] Okay, wow.
- The bone is 6 1/2 feet long and about half a ton.
- Yeah, that's crazy.
Let's do this.
I'm gonna lay down next to it,
just so you guys can get some scale
as to how big it really is.
Now, I'm about 5'10, so that's bigger than I am, isn't it?
- Oh, yeah.
In fact, we are recreating.
The fellow who discovered brachiosaurus
did exactly this out in the field in 1900,
and we have the picture of him next to it.
- Wow, so cool!
I have never laid hands on a fossil like this before.
Nothing this big, and it's incredibly dense.
- Yes.
- Unbelievable.
- [Bill] It's a bit flattened, but yes, very dense.
- Bill, I've heard that actually
this particular fossil has some historical significance.
Can you tell us a little bit about that?
- Yeah.
When you find a new organism of any kind,
plant, animal, extinct, living,
you get to make up the name for it.
You publish a very detailed description of it
and you designate one official example,
the physical definition of your new organism.
That's called a holotype.
Holotypes are the rock stars
of the natural history collection.
This bone, along with those behind us,
are the holotype of brachiosaurus.
- Very cool.
Well, as we know, the brachiosaurus
was an herbivore, a veggie-sauras.
And as we move forward into the Cretaceous Period,
think we can get some carnivore
fossils up close for the cameras?
_ Yeah, let's go see some.
- All right, guys.
Let's go take a look at some meat eaters.
Brachiosaurus will forever stand tall
as one of the Jurassic franchise's most beloved dinosaurs.
Whether using its 30-foot neck
to reach leaves in the treetops,
or displaying its massive 56 tons of power
by simply walk through a scene,
we never fail to admire this titan with childlike wonder.
The Jurassic Period was certainly rich with dinosaurs,
yet some of the most recognizable stars
were actually roaming the planet
145 to 66 million years ago, during the Cretaceous Period.
And while land-dwelling dinosaurs
have commanded a fair share of screen time,
Jurassic fans now have a prehistoric predator
that hunted beneath the waves.
Wow!
Revealing the Cretaceous Period!
- All right, here we go. - Sweet.
- So we've got a variety
of different Cretaceous animals here,
but if you wanna see a carnivore, we've got one right here.
- Oh, yes!
Guys, check this out.
That's mosasaurus, right? - Yeah, this is a mosasaur.
Uh-huh, an aquatic lizard.
So it's not at all a dinosaur. - Not a dinosaur, okay.
- It's on the whole other side of the reptile tree.
- Now is this something that I can hold onto?
- Let me get the skull out, and I can show you.
- Wow, that is impressive.
Now, did you guys find this
like this, completely articulated?
- No.
This one was actually donated to the museum.
Help me support it.
I'll turn it right-side up.
Put your hands under the snout, maybe a little closer in.
Yep.
Okay, about there? - Yeah.
- I's heavy.
- Most mosasaurs are fairly two-dimensional.
They're flattened.
This one has been expanded out,
so it's fairly three-dimensional.
- [Coyote] That is cool.
- You can see the sclerotic ring,
the bones inside the eye. - Yes!
At over 70 feet length, the park's mosasaur
hails as the largest carnivore in Jurassic World,
and far surpasses anything
that we've seen in the fossil record.
And while it hunted in the ocean
during the same time period that T-Rex stalked the land,
this giant marine reptile is more closely
related to monitor lizards than it is to dinosaurs.
Let's put the skull back.
Let's take a look at, would you call these the flippers?
- Yeah, flippers, paddles. - Okay.
- Yeah, they're the hands and feet of this animal.
- That's cool.
Look at that, guys!
Wow.
Just like an oar.
You can just imagine this thing
propelling itself forward at incredible speeds.
Do you think that they were rather quick?
- Yeah, of course they were.
Yeah, carnivores.
You bet.
They'd be terrifying. - Yeah.
Now, is there something that I can hold onto?
- Yeah. - Okay.
- There's a beautiful little section of lower jaw
in this specimen over here. - Is it this right here?
- Yeah, go ahead and pick that up.
That's pretty well-preserved.
- Check this out, guys.
A smaller jawbone.
That's a little bit easier to hold onto than the full skull.
Look at that.
Quite the intimidating reptile.
- Now in reptiles, you have lots
of bones in the lower jaw.
We as mammals, we're used to just having one bone,
but in a reptile, you've got lots of different bones.
And this is just one of them.
- Now, like crocodilians, were they constantly
rejuvenating their teeth?
Because I see there's more teeth coming out
from the jaw socket there. - Yeah, absolutely.
- I consider this a small one.
I mean, in the movie they're so much bigger.
- Yeah, there's a huge diversity in size
in this group because it's a big group.
There are small ones.
This is a middle-sized one.
The one in the movie, obviously, was a real giant.
- I think it goes without question,
the mosasaur certainly is one intimidating predator.
And as we know, at the end
of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom,
we got a couple sneak peaks as to this creature
existing now amongst the humans,
and I know we're all really excited
to see where the next film's gonna take us.
Well, it certainly was an honor for myself
and the crew to be here going behind the scenes
at the Chicago Field Museum.
Bill, thank you so much
for meeting us. - Great to meet you, Coyote.
- On this trip through time through the Triassic,
to the Jurassic, and finally the Cretaceous Period.
I'm Coyote Peterson.
Be brave!
Stay wild.
We'll see you on the next Jurassic World Adventure.
The science of paleontology
has provided us all with a gateway into the past.
And when combined with the art of filmmaking,
it's easy to see why the results
have captivated generations of dinosaur fanatics.
In its own right, the Jurassic franchise
is responsible for encouraging countless minds
to follow their dreams into these respective fields.
By embracing this very notion,
the renowned Chicago Field Museum
strives to inspire discovery and spark public
engagement with art and science,
helping to bring these dreams to reality.
If you love the Jurassic franchise as much as we do,
then make sure to go and watch the films
from Universal Home Entertainment
that sparked an adventures 65 million years in the making.
(dinosaur roars)
This collection is now available on Blu-Ray,
DVD, and digital download.
Hey, dinosaur fans!
Make sure to subscribe and click the notification bell
so you can join the Jurassic World Explorers next week
as we go behind the scenes with Sue,
the world's largest and most complete,
Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton.
(exciting orchestral music)
(fire crackling) (wolf howls)