Open up and say aah: Say hello to the ‘ Jurassic World’ velociraptor
Philadelphia exhibit introduces Blue in all her toothy, prehistoric glory
Blue was a shy dinosaur, PHILADELPHIA despite a park ranger calling her a “wild animal with killer instincts.”
The velociraptor, whose name you might recognize from the movie Jurassic World, is the newest addition to the exhibit inspired by the 2015 blockbuster. Jurassic World: The Exhibition! has opened in Philadelphia’s Franklin Institute after premiering in Melbourne, Australia, earlier this year. New to the U. S. museum experience is the Raptor Training Paddock, which USA TODAY exclusively previewed.
Unlike the roaring animatronic creatures in the exhibit, some more than 24 feet tall, Blue the raptor stood only about 7 feet. And she was afraid. But a hologram, a raptor trainer reminiscent of Chris Pratt’s Jurassic World character, encouraged her to come greet me. “Easy, eyes on me,” he said to Blue as I stared at her from the other side of a gate.
She tentatively tiptoed toward me and got close to my face, so I got a good look at her bluish scales, sharp teeth and blinking eyes. She jerked her head, like a giant chicken with claws instead of wings. She looked real. Until she scampered off, and I saw the actor’s human legs peeking out from under her puppet body.
Paleontologist Jack Horner, who consulted on all of the Jurassic Park movies and made sure the Jurassic World exhibit didn’t have “any glaring scientific mistakes that sixth- graders would pick up on,” says the raptors in the museum are just like those that existed millions of years ago.
“It’s all about moving like a bird,” Horner says, which is something he told the actors giving motion- capture performances for the raptors in Jurassic World.
“Dinosaurs would’ve had very birdlike movements, and you can’t build machines that’ll do that.” So humans can more realistically portray the movements of dinos, which can make them scarier.
Horner collaborated on the exhibit’s interactive educational components that subtly deliver science facts to museum- goers. Some of the best ways that guests can learn about prehistory: Feel surprisingly warm “dino dung” at the Gentle Giants petting zoo; watch a hungry, towering T. rex try to free its food from a cage; and design brightly colored dinosaurs ( Horner says the muted color pattern introduced by director Steven Spielberg in the original Jurassic Park probably wasn’t accurate) at the In Gen lab.
Has Horner himself picked the patterns and colors of a dinosaur in the interactive exhibit? No, he did one better: “I got to help design Indominus rex.” That’s the fictional creature featured in the movie ( and as a finale in the Jurassic World exhibit). Warning: She has quite a temper.