An artist has remade a Jurassic Park scene with accurate dinosaurs and it’s brought online pedants out in force
Who doesn’t love Jurassic Park? The 1993 film is a classic tale of man versus nature and evolving fatherhood, all wrapped up in an exciting adventure with dinosaurs that still holds up some 30 years later.
Part of the film’s enduring appeal is its groundbreaking special effects. By skilfully balancing physical props and CGI, Jurassic Park presented dinosaurs to audiences in a way that had never been seen before. The days of realising them with stop motion animation were extinct.
However it’s no secret that the film plays fast and loose when it comes to the accuracy of certain dinosaurs, in particular the raptors. While they may look threatening and reptilian in the film, in reality they bore a closer resemblance to birds.
To help visualise what they might have looked like, freelance 3D modeler CoolioArt whipped up this incredible clip from the film with updated effects…
I did it again!
Jurassic Park with accurate raptors, a short part 2#jurassicpark #blender3d pic.twitter.com/LKyGsNiLBa
— CoolioArt (@Coolio_Art) January 5, 2025
As the status implies, this isn’t the first time CoolioArt has updated Jurassic Park’s visual effects. They’ve also tweaked how the raptors look in the terrifying kitchen scene:
Jurassic park with SCIENTIFICALLY ACCURATE Raptors!
[Full video linked below]#jurassicpark #jurassicworld pic.twitter.com/2nHdZ6NiO6
— CoolioArt (@Coolio_Art) December 24, 2024
It’s impressive work you’d be hard-pressed to criticise. But the internet, like life, finds a way. That’s because there are a lot of online pedants ready and waiting to criticise even something as incredible as CoolioArt’s videos, which you can see more of on their YouTube channel. Luckily, the artist is one step ahead of the cynics.
If you’ve watched the kitchen video, you’ll have already seen that CoolioArt knows that the dinosaurs in question are not raptors, but in fact deinonychus. The two are part of the same theropod subgroup, Velociraptorinae, which may explain why the makers of Jurassic Park saw them as interchangeable.
CoolioArt breaks down the differences between the two in the comments to his video.
There were many species of raptor, some were actually even bigger than the ones in Jurassic park
These guys are deinonychus (they were too in the original film but misnamed)
They were smaller than this on average but an exceptionally large one could get close to jp size pic.twitter.com/ryXHqf6YM9
— CoolioArt (@Coolio_Art) January 6, 2025
Still reeling from the discovery that dinosaurs had feathers? CoolioArt breaks it down for you:
Birds are reptiles and every bird has feathers. In the past, many groups of warm-blooded reptiles existed, dinosaurs being one of them, now only the birds are left.
— CoolioArt (@Coolio_Art) January 6, 2025
And as the artist points out, a certain degree of creative liberties were still used.
Thanks! While the black coloration was definitely a stylistic choice, it’s unlikely that large predatory dinosaurs were vividly colored in much of their body. Modern predatory mammals and birds of prey are a much better reference for colors than parrots or songbirds
— CoolioArt (@Coolio_Art) January 6, 2025
Ah, but, I hear you cry as a contrarian internet user, couldn’t CoolioArt’s graphics become just as outdated as the original movie’s special effects? Once again, the artist has considered this.
A lot of folks are understandbly cautious that current “accurate” dinosaurs will soon be rendered outdated once again.
We are likely past the point that dinosaurs are to radically change again, outside of a few enigmatic groups.
Think of our understanding like an asymptote: https://t.co/U7F2Uj53ZS pic.twitter.com/9G9eVUbpJN
— CoolioArt (@Coolio_Art) January 6, 2025
CoolioArt’s clip cuts off just before (spoiler alert) a T-Rex steps in and saves the day by munching on the raptors. But were they feathered too, or did they look all scaly as you’d imagine? As you’d expect, CoolioArt’s got the answer.
This is currently one of the most accurate t rex reconstruction to date, drawn by @arvalis pic.twitter.com/MIC7j2dmOF
— CoolioArt (@Coolio_Art) January 6, 2025
So yes, while the dinosaurs in CoolioArt’s clip might not be 100% scientifically accurate down to the last feather, they’re still much more close to life than the original. Here’s hoping CoolioArt gets round to remaking the whole film with accurate dinosaurs one day, but in the meantime they’ve been blessed with the highest accolade of all:
we did it reddit pic.twitter.com/sQADXINpVS
— CoolioArt (@Coolio_Art) January 7, 2025
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