Dr. Jack Horner, paleontologist and advisor for all of the "Jurassic Park" films including the latest "Jurassic World," has stated in a BBC interview that the new film's plotline of creating hybrid animals is actually more realistic than bringing back dinosaurs by creating clones, as featured in the first "Jurassic Park" film.
"We don't have dinosaur DNA," Dr. Horner explained, "but we can make transgenic animals. The cool thing about making a hybrid is that we can take a whole bunch of genes from other kinds of animals and mix them together to make a new animal, which is actually more plausible than the original idea of bringing dinosaurs back."
Previous films only dabbled in bringing back dinosaurs by extracting dinosaur DNA from fossilized amber where mosquitoes may have been trapped. While there are amber stones with mosquitoes, the dinosaur DNA would have deteriorated beyond use after millions of years, making it impossible to clone them as seen in "Jurassic Park."
"Jurassic World," on the other hand, will feature one of the first new hybrids that will be in the park, the Indominus Rex. According to the film's official plot synopsis, the Indominus Rex is created because park goers are no longer entertained by the sight of regular dinosaurs and the scientists need to come up with a solution to the park's diminishing returns. However, the dinosaur breaks loose, causing havoc all over the island.
This hybrid creature is larger than the famous Tyrannosaurus Rex, and its genes are mixed in with those of Rugops, Carnotaurus, Gigantosaurus and the Majungasaurus, which was a cannibalistic animal.
The science is so valid that according to Cinema Blend, Dr. Horner is already planning to create his own hybrid creature. According to the report, Horner will use a chicken and alter its genetic code until it resembles a real dinosaur, something the article quotes as a "chickenosaurus."
"Jurassic World" opens in theaters this June 12.
