Universal Studios finally released the first trailer for Jurassic World: Dominion four months ahead of the film’s release, and it featured dinosaurs living in snowy climates, but is this scientifically accurate? Dominion will be the third feature film in the Jurassic World series and the sixth in the Jurassic Park franchise. Chris Pratt is set to return as Owen Grady, alongside an ensemble cast featuring characters from both the Jurassic World and Jurassic Park trilogies.
Dominion is set four years after its predecessor Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, the ending of which saw the dinosaurs escaping captivity into the civilized world. The first trailer for Dominion featured various species of dinosaurs living in every corner of the globe, some in very cold habitats. This goes against the notion of dinosaurs living exclusively in tropical biomes, a notion that was embraced by every Jurassic Park/World film thus far.
That idea was a mere misconception since it has already been confirmed by various scientific communities that certain species of dinosaurs did live in areas with colder weather. Recent discoveries have shown that dinosaurs were spread all over the globe before their extinction, including tundra zones like Greenland, Antarctica, and Alaska. After spending five feature films on tropical islands, exploring different environments would be a departure from previous Jurassic films, albeit one that is also backed by science.
Over the past century, paleontologists across the globe have launched expeditions to determine whether dinosaurs lived in colder climates. Digs in Greenland, Alaska, and Antarctica were all successful in finding fossils of different dinosaur species, proving that not only did these prehistoric reptiles live on frozen land, but they also thrived there. Fossils of Raptors, Brachiosauruses, and more species were found in Northern Alaska, validating the film’s decision to place those species in a snowy climate. Additionally, recent research confirmed that due to their mesothermic nature (being neither cold- nor warm-blooded), dinosaurs were able to survive in a variety of climates, including temperature extremes. This was further bolstered by the discovery of dinosaur fossils in Alaskan peaks, where temperatures dropped below -40 F.
While Dominion will not be the first Jurassic Park film to put a dinosaur in the middle of human civilization (The Lost World: Jurassic Park famously put a T-Rex in San Diego), it will do so on a much bigger scale than any of its predecessors. The film is said to be a globe-trotting adventure, a stark departure from the previous films in the Jurassic franchise, all of which were primarily set on previously uncharted islands. It’s an unconventional move for a dinosaur film to be set in a snowy environment, yet the science proves that doing so is historically accurate. Details surrounding the plot of Jurassic World: Dominion remain scarce, but the film is confirmed to explore the ramifications of dinosaurs re-entering the Earth’s ecosystem after 65 million years of absence, which opens up tons of possibilities for the franchise.
- Jurassic World: Dominion (2022)Release date: Jun 10, 2022
