“Change of plans. Mission took a jog to the left. I’m taking everything off-site.”
“The embryos are safe here. They can live up to eight weeks on the generators.”
“No, no. You — You listen. Park’s gonna be Chapter 11 by morning. Okay? Our little side project’s about to get shot in the arm. I don’t want a bunch of lawyers messing around with something they don’t understand. You get it?”
[Silence]
“Hey. I’m gonna take that as a yes.”
Dr. Henry Wu and Vic Hoskins, Jurassic World
Upon closer examination, I realized that the mysterious hybrid dinosaur known as E750 was indirectly mentioned in Jurassic World. Near the end of the movie, Dr. Henry Wu and Vic Hoskins spoke to one another over the phone and mentioned a “side project” they were working on. When Hoskins mentioned the “side project”, Dr. Wu looked visibly afraid. Considering E750 attacked Dr. Wu, it is easy to see why he would be frightened by the mention of the “side project”. Due to this, E750 was the side project that Dr. Wu and Hoskins were working on behind the scenes. Later in the movie, Hoskins mentioned the possibility of making a hybrid that was a more compact version of the Indominus Rex that was every bit as deadly and intelligent as the original and could hide from the most advanced military technology. At the time, we thought Hoskins was foreshadowing the Indoraptor, but now it is clear he was talking about E750. This would make sense because the Indoraptor would be made on the mainland two years after Jurassic World fell. Meanwhile, E750 was already made and fully grown on Isla Nublar by the time the events of Jurassic World took place. Essentially, E750 is Dr. Wu’s and Hoskins’s version of the Indoraptor before the Indoraptor itself was created. With all of this in mind, the kids in Camp Cretaceous are up against a creature that is not only a genetic freak, but also a living weapon that is specifically bred for combat. This has raised the stakes even higher and I look forward to seeing what will happen in Season 3 of Camp Cretaceous.
I remember the opening scenes of both the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead and World War Z, which depicts the characters’ lives being turned upside down overnight when the zombie apocalypse comes. In a single day, the characters’ community became overrun and ravaged by legions of inhuman beings. In my third dinosaur book, my characters will be thrust into a similar scenario. However, the inhuman beings they deal with will not be zombies. Even though these beings will be living creatures, they will have similar behavioral patterns to the fast moving version of zombies.
I have started reading a new audiobook, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World. The audiobook is nearly eight and a half hours long and I am about an hour in. I have watched every adaptation of this story and understand the basic summary of it, but it will be a new experience to listen to the actual story. I will provide my review of the book when I am done. After this book, I am planning to listen to Jules Verne audiobooks such as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Journey to the Center of the Earth.
I have always been fascinated with the concept of lost worlds that are inhabited by creatures that were thought extinct for millions of years. Stories such as The Lost World, Journey to the Center of the Earth, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, and King Kong all portrayed such ecosystems. In most stories such as these, the prehistoric inhabitants remained unchanged for millions of years and are essentially the same as they were in the distant past.
However, I disagree with this idea because even if the animals’ ancestors survived mass extinctions, they will continue to evolve unchecked for 65 million years. With this in mind, creatures of a lost world would not be the same beasts we are familiar with. This is prominent with the Skull Island of the 2005 version of King Kong, which feature creatures that resemble the prehistoric animals of the distant past. However, even though they resemble their forebears, these creatures still underwent millions of years of adaptation and evolution.
If a lost world was artificially made like Isla Sorna in Jurassic Park, it is also possible that the island’s inhabitants would not be like their prehistoric templates. Through genetic engineering, scientists can try to recreate dinosaurs, but they realistically would not be like the real thing. That is due to the unpredictable nature of meddling in an organism’s DNA. You never know what you will ultimately get.
Overall, even though the concept of lost worlds is fascinating beyond measure, there is a noticeable flaw in it. There is no doubt that a lost world would be home to prehistoric monsters. However, due to the need to evolve, it is very likely that the inhabitants would not be like the beasts of the distant past. A real lost world would be a place with evolutionary mutations that no one has ever dreamed of.
“Well, they’re all so different. To look at them you wouldn’t say that they are the same species . . . but they’re growing from the same branch structure . . . so it has to be the same species. It’s the same plant! It’s like they’re stuck in a continuous mutation.”
Lena, Annihilation
Even though the reverse engineered dinosaurs are the main attraction in my dinosaur series, I also put a lot of thought into the plants as well. I wanted to create plants that were unnatural and otherworldly in appearance due to their manmade nature. With this in mind, I drew inspiration from the Toxic Jungle from Hayao Miyazaki’s Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. The Toxic Jungle looked alien in appearance, which gave it an unsettling yet eerily beautiful atmosphere. I wanted to give the plants and rainforests in my dinosaur series a similar structure.
“It’s not like us… it’s unlike us. I don’t know what it wants, or if it wants, but it’ll grow until it encompasses everything. Our bodies and our minds will be fragmented into their smallest parts until not one part remains… Annihilation.”
Dr. Ventress, Annihilation
I remember the scifi film known as Annihilation, which featured an energy field called The Shimmer. The Shimmer operated like a prism that refracted the DNA of all organisms within its area of influence. As a result, the plants and animals within the Shimmer became mutants. Some of these mutants were beautiful while others were grotesque. The important thing was it was taking the genetic material of Earth’s biosphere and remodeling it into something new. I will be taking a similar route in The Kaligen Experiment where the manmade dinosaurs possess something that changes every lifeform it comes in contact with.
In the film adaptation of Carnosaur, we were introduced to radically insane plan by a mad scientist named Dr. Jane Tiptree. Tiptree somehow extracted prehistoric DNA and used it to create a virus that contaminated chicken eggs. Upon exposure to the virus, human males would become violently sick while human females became living incubators for dinosaur eggs. Tiptree’s endgame was to give the planet back to the dinosaurs by breeding the human race out of existence. After a matter of days, the virus had contaminated an entire town, but was contained by the military before it erupted into a global pandemic. However, I sometimes wonder how the world would have changed if the military failed to contain Tiptree’s virus. Would the human race be able to fend off its own extinction? Would the dinosaurs take over the planet? An intriguing scenario to consider.
“A creature of the future, made from pieces of the past!”
Gunnar Eversol, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
I have watched the latest trailer for Season 3 of Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous and it looks like we have a better idea of what this season will be like. With the mysterious creature known as E750 on the loose, the atmosphere was darker and more suspenseful, which was hinted by the cloudy and gloomy sky over Isla Nublar.
I have been keeping tabs on any potential rumors and leaks and I think I have a better idea of what E750 is. Its possible name is “Scorpius Rex.” In the trailer, we potentially saw the creature’s eye as it watched a bolt of lightning light a tree on fire. It looks like it is the size of a Velociraptor or a medium-sized carnivore as big as a Carnotaurus. Its status as a genetically modified hybrid like the Indominus Rex and the Indoraptor is starting to become more likely.
Upon further investigation, it looks like there may have been multiple versions of the animal. This was hinted by the notes Brooklyn found that were numbered 1309, 1310, and 1311. Whether if these were other attempts to create or some other hybrids that are yet to reveal themselves remains unknown. Hopefully, we will get some answers in the next season.
For the longest while, I thought about Eli Mills’s men retrieving a rib bone from the Indominus Rex at the start of Fallen Kingdom. They did this to get a base genome to create the Indoraptor. If E750 was another hybrid, why didn’t Mills send his men to retrieve a sample from it while it was contained in its cryostasis capsule? Why did they not include it in their Indoraptor project? I think I have an idea why.
I think Dr. Henry Wu kept E750 on ice for a reason. Compared to the Indominus Rex, E750 is likely more genetically unstable and unpredictable. It might have been an even more imperfect hybrid than the Indoraptor, which would have made an even more monstrous genetic freak. Due to this, E750 may have been deemed to dangerous by Dr. Henry Wu and kept on ice until he figured out what to do with it. If its DNA is unstable enough, E750 might have been considered a poor choice to base the Indoraptor project on.
If E750 is as unstable and monstrous as I think it is, it may be the most fearsome hybrid in the franchise so far, even more so than even the Indominus Rex and the Indoraptor. However, even though E750 may be an imperfect creature, I have a feeling that it will attract attention from some outside parties such as the corporation Mantah Corp. Sammy did give them a flash drive full of data, which may contain information about E750. With the Indominus Rex dead and the Indoraptor not yet existing, E750 may be too big of a prize for Mantah Corp to resist. Due to this, I think we will finally see Mantah Corp this season as they try to claim E750 for themselves. However, if E750 is as deadly as I think it is, I think a lot of people are going to die trying to catch while the kids get caught in the crossfire. We shall see in the next season in May.
“Animals raised in isolation aren’t always the most functional.”
“Your raptors were born in captivity.”
“With siblings. They learn social skills and I imprint on them when they’re born. There’s trust. The only positive relationship this animal has is with that crane. At least she knows that means food.”
“So, she needs a friend. We should schedule playdates? That sort of thing?”
“Probably not a good idea.”
Owen Grady and Claire Dearing, Jurassic World
In Jurassic World, we got to see the Indominus Rex cause all kinds of havoc when it broke out of its paddock. Some believed that this was due to its super-charged predatory instincts or some kind of mental illness caused by its hybrid nature. However, I think the reason is more complex than that. To find out the reason, you need to go back to the very beginning during the original Jurassic Park film.
In Jurassic Park, the staff had no idea how to handle their Velociraptors. When they hatched, the raptors proved lethal when they turned eight months old. Their lethality was so extreme that the raptors proved savage even amongst themselves. This was proven when the alpha raptor nicknamed the “Big One” slaughtered all but two of the other raptors. Eventually, the raptors became so violent and unpredictable that Jurassic Park’s game warden Robert Muldoon was forced to relocate the raptors to a more cramped enclosure and feed them live cows from a crane. This new enclosure was too cramped for three raptors and they were cut off from the rest of the world. Muldoon was basing his handling of the raptors on his own experiences of handling predators such as lions, which are nothing compared to raptors. John Hammond claimed to have been present for the birth of every dinosaur on Isla Nublar, but he clearly did nothing else after the imprinting process had begun. With no other form of parental care or guidance, the raptors’ savagery was guaranteed.
With Jurassic World, we get to see what happens when you give Velociraptors the care and guidance that they require. Owen Grady not only imprinted on his four Velociraptors when they were born, but he continued to raise and train them until they reached adulthood. Their paddock was larger, which gave them more room to move about. The railing on top of the paddock was designed so that the raptors were forced to look up at Owen as he hand fed them. This is similar to baby birds get food from their mothers. Even so, you can imprint, raise, and train a raptor, but at the end of the day they are still wild animals, which makes them unpredictable. Fortunately, if you raise and train raptors their entire lives, they are less likely to attack anyone.
Sadly, the Indominus Rex did not imprint on a parental figure when it was born and it did not learn social skills. It was just put inside its paddock the day it was born and was instantly cut off from the rest of the world. The Indominus Rex did not learn to get along with its sibling to the point in which it cannibalized it. Whether if this was due to its Abelisaur genes or its lack of social skills is up for debate. However, if the Indominus Rex imprinted on a parental figure and learned social skills, it might not have turned on its sibling.
Due to being bigger than any Velociraptor, the Indominus Rex would have needed a much larger paddock for it to move around in. Its paddock was designed to have high walls to keep the animal from escaping, but it clearly the engineers did not consider making it wider. Since it was raised in isolation, the Indominus Rex lacked any form of mental stimulation. Because it had the intellect of a Velociraptor, the Indominus Rex needed a considerable amount of mental stimulation. This would have kept it from getting bored and it would have encouraged emotional growth and satisfaction.
A normal Tyrannosaurus Rex needed about 500 pounds of meat a day just to stay alive. Due to being bigger, the Indominus Rex would need 700 or 800 pounds of meat a day to stay alive. It would also need a source of water the size of a swimming pool every day to stay hydrated. I would also need a bulldozer or a colony of dung beetles to deal with its daily droppings.
The tracking implant that was initially in the Indominus Rex’s back could also be used to shock it if it got too close to a perimeter fence. However, it clawed it out due to remembering where it was put in. With this in mind, backup implants would be needed to be put in place especially in areas that are hard for it to reach. Just as my pit bulls require a shock collar from time to time, an Indominus Rex would need these shocking implants to be used as a training tool to maintain discipline when it misbehaves.
If I raised the Indominus Rex, I would take the Owen Grady approach and tend to its care and needs every day of its life. I would raise it as I would my pit bulls with a healthy balance between love and discipline, both of which the Indominus Rex never received. I would need an even larger backyard to accommodate such a large animal. However, if I went for the more compact version that Vic Hoskins wanted to create, I think it would be easier to manage. When properly trained and raised, I think the Indominus Rex would be far better than any guard dog. I can only imagine how people at the dog park would react when I bring a 50 foot long, 20 foot tall, and 8 ton creature.
Overall, I would love the opportunity to raise and train the Indominus Rex. Due to its isolated and potentially abusive upbringing, the Indominus Rex was an animal that required love and attention like any other living thing. If I could provide it with a proper upbringing, I might be able to temper its more savage instincts.
I would name the Indominus Rex Mary after the Tudor queen Bloody Mary. If I raised it along with its sibling, I would name its sibling after Elizabeth the Virgin Queen. However, if one of them changes gender from female to male like the original Jurassic Park dinosaurs, I would name the male either Henry or Edward. If one of them changes gender and they become a mated pair, I could start a breeding population of Indominus Rex. The two Indominus Rex would then pass on the social skills I gave them to their offspring. This could lead to animals that were originally genetic freaks into becoming truly functional lifeforms.
While brainstorming my alien invasion story idea, I ponder on a few questions. How would aliens invade? Would they go all-out war like Independence Day or War of the Worlds or would they choose the back door and conquer the planet covertly? What kind of technology would they possess? Would they attack with space crafts or ground forces? Would they have energy-based weapons or would they have something more advanced? When it comes to method of invasion, I prefer the straightforward approach because I think aliens would want to show off their technological superiority. I am thinking of giving my aliens ground forces that are composed of nanotechnology. The fun thing about nanotechnology is that if it is advanced enough it can assume any form it wants depending on the situation. This promises to be a particularly formidable military weapon for the forces of Earth to face.
