Jurassic Park Generation: the last goodbye to the movie paleontologist who inspired us
From Sam Neill to the new heroines of paleontology, cinema has awakened scientific vocations and has evolved at the pace of discoveries about dinosaurs
One of the most iconic scenes in cinema bears the signature of Steven Spielberg. In Jurassic Park (1993), paleobotanist Ellie Sattler –Laura Dern– and paleontologist Alan Grant –Sam Neill– observe, for the first time, a colossal Brachiosaurus alive. In the background, the music of John Williams. If we add to this the friendly face of Sir Richard Attenborough, and his "Welcome to Jurassic Park!", the epicness of the moment is unparalleled. Rarely had the seventh art turned scientists into heroines and heroes – into cult characters.It is not surprising that on July 13th a sad news struck not only the film industry, but millions of people in love with dinosaurs. We lost the actor Sam Neill and, with him, our movie paleontologist. In the three films he appeared in – sagas of Jurassic Park and Jurassic World– we accompany him as he digs with a brush and ground-penetrating radar, seeks funding for research in Montana, or speaks knowledgeably about his subject of study. Furthermore, he conveys passion. "He was always my favorite since I was a child," he confesses to Dr. Sattler when they care for a sick triceratops. Thanks to these characters, other children and adults joined the vast legions of dinomania. Some even decided to dedicate themselves to paleontology as a profession. And, we insist, we owe a large part of the credit to the now mourned Sam Neill, who managed to distance himself from the mere muscular adventurer to embody a hero capable of uniting science and humanity, Dr. Alan Grant.Other scientists in celluloid
Are there other celluloid paleontologists who have sparked scientific vocations? Besides Professor Challenger in The Lost World (Hoyt, 1925), it is obligatory to mention Kyohei Yamane in Godzilla (Honda, 1954). Far from wanting to exterminate Godzilla – a dinosaur mutated by nuclear radiation – he fights to protect it from human stupidity, the same that has created powerful self-destruction weapons. It was seeing this film, and Yamane's personality, that marked the career of José Luis Sanz, today professor emeritus at the Complutense University of Madrid and one of the leading dinosaur experts worldwide. In a documentary premiered at the Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia, El Valle de Concavenator (2022), Sanz acknowledges the strong link between cinema and the genesis of his career in the field of paleontology. For example, in 2010 he and his team published the discovery of a new species of dinosaur: Concavenator corcovatus, the creature co-star of the documentary directed by Víctor Matellano; the other star is a reptile, also carnivorous and bipedal, but fictional: Gwangi.The Valley of Gwangi (O'Connelly, 1969) was filmed, in large part, in Cuenca. And the Concavenator was excavated, precisely, at the Cuenca de Las Hoyas site, and is called the hunter of Cuenca. Who would have told Ray Harryhausen, the master of special effects who brought Gwangi to life (a kind of hybrid between Tyrannosaurus and Allosaurus), that a similar predator existed in this very habitat: the Concavenator, which would end up landing in Hollywood at the hands of Barcelona director J.A. Bayona. It appears in a diorama in the Lockwood Museum in the footage of Jurassic World. Fallen Kingdom (2018).Harryhausen was also the author of the prehistoric creatures that parade through the film One million years B.C. (Chaffey, 1966). Raquel Welch's image, with her antediluvian bikini, alongside John Richardson's loincloth, steals the spotlight from the dinosaurs, which serves to remind us that the association of humans and these fossil reptiles has never existed. Nor has the de-extinction that, with the help of genetic engineering, the writer Michael Crichton ventured in his novels occurred. Dinosaurs – with the exception of birds – became extinct 66 million years ago, and the first hominins appeared in Africa between 7 and 6 million years ago (Homo sapiens, only 350,000 years ago).Homo sapiens, only 350,000 years ago).
Are current birds dinosaurs? Yes. They descend from bipedal dinosaurs: theropods. In fact, the velociraptor had a body covered in feathers. Despite this, in addition to exaggerating the real size of these predators, Spielberg dispensed with the feathers – were they more terrifying that way? –. And indeed, dinosaur means "terrible lizard" (Richard Owen, 1841). But recent films like Primitive War (Sparke, 2025), a film that mixes dinosaurs and soldiers in the Vietnam War, have opted for the feathered look, even for the idolized T-rex. At the same time, they opt for gender equality and conservationism. We have spoken of Ellie Sattler, but Claire Dearing – in Jurassic World. Fallen Kingdom– evolves from CEO to founder of the Dinosaur Protection Group, where Zia Rodriguez, a young paleo-veterinarian and environmental activist, works.
Science and cinema are paving their way, and new dinosaur films are merging fantasy with advances in paleontology.
