Troodon

"You don't want to be left alive by this dinosaur."

- Telltale Games in an interview

Troodon is a small bird-like Theropod. It has very long legs with specialized feet, in which the middle long bone was pinched out at the top to form a shock-absorbing wedge. This allowed it to run very fast. Troodon had very large eyes that faced mostly forward, so that it could focus better. It is famous for having one of the largest brains (for its body size) of any dinosaur making it the most intelligent.

Troodon had a jaw full of many small teeth, but they were not like the teeth of typical meat-eaters. Instead of little serrations running up and down the back of the teeth (as in most meat-eaters), there were larger bumps running along the side, as in many plant-eating dinosaurs and lizards. Some paleontologists speculate that Troodon may have eaten not only small animals, lizards, and baby dinosaurs, but also insects, eggs, and even plants.

Paleontologist Dave Varricchio discovered the first Troodon nest. Like oviraptorosaurs and ground-dwelling birds, Troodon would make a nest on the ground. It would then curl up on top of the nest to brood its eggs.

The Lost World novel
Troodon (or Troödon in older sources) has never appeared in any films or novels and was never seen in novel canon. However, it was mentioned in The Lost World novel, although not as an InGen dinosaur. Dr. Richard Levine was talking to Dr. Marty Guitierrez about a colleague of his named John Roxton whom had discovered what he believed to be a Velociraptor skeleton in Mongolia. However, it was actually a Troodon skeleton.

Game/Film Canon
Troodon appear as antagonists in Telltale's Jurassic Park: The Game. It first appears as an unidentified nocturnal dinosaur that stalks and kills several characters, its identity only being revealed later on in the game's storyline. They are portrayed as very slender theropods with a pale grey body, irregular dark dorsal stripes, a red underbelly and long whip-like tail. They also have a series of quills or spines running down their backs - it is unknown if these are protofeathers or collagenous. Most likely for cinematic effect, Telltale has given the Troodon large, bulbous glowing eyes. In some scenes one can see blue pupils in the Troodons eyes. This is possibly due to a , a tissue in the eyes of many animals that reflects light through the retina in order to see better in the dark (like a cat's eyes). As a side effect, they cannot stand intense light and can be held at bay with a simple road flare. These Troodon are designated Species IG74726f6f646f6e, but according to Laura Sorkin's research journal, their scientific name is T. pectinodon. In the game, they seem to be at least three meters long. They could be based on the largest species of Troodon named 'T. inequalis. 'They are described as being extremely intelligent, perhaps even more so than the Velociraptors, and are shown to travel in large packs. The Troodon vocalizations consist mostly of a sinister clicking sound, similar to that of a crow or raven. When the animal is attacking, it makes a low snarling sound, and when it is excited, it makes a guttural squealing or screeching noise used from the sounds of elks. The reverberating sound of their vocalizations is enough to send other dinosaurs fleeing in fright, including predatory species like Velociraptor. Some of the Troodon vocal sounds are derived from those of an elk, similar to other dinosaurs for which real animal sounds were used.

Most likely for cinematic effect, Telltale has given these Troodons a unique ability – they are venomous. It is possible that the venom is secreted by the dinosaurs themselves, much like Gila monsters or the Dilophosaurus. However, when Dr. Harding inspects Nima’s bite wound, he says that the wound looks like “…some dinosaurs have been ingesting poisonous plants.” If this analysis is correct, the kind of coordination and foresight it implies on the dinosaur’s part makes the Troodon seem even more intelligent.Troodon bite wounds are ragged, owing to the dinosaur's numerous serrated teeth, but they tend to bite a victim only once before backing off and letting their venom bring down their prey. The toxins in their saliva cause hallucinations, in some cases causing the victim to become violent and attack nearby individuals. Unless the infection is treated by an extremely powerful tranquillizer, the victim then goes into a series of convulsions and seizures. The final stage is paralysis and brain death. This hunting use of venom is similar to that of the . After this, the Troodon drags the paralyzed but still-living body into a secluded area, partially buries the body in a mound of plant matter, and rips open the abdomen with its claws and teeth. Finally, the Troodon lays its eggs in the mangled torso and incubates them there until they hatch, presumably using the slowly-dying victim for both body heat and food for the hatchlings, which would proceed to eat the corpse from the inside out. This method of rearing young is similar to that of most  species, which lays their eggs inside the bodies of tarantulas and other spiders. If the Troodon is not breeding, it devours the victim alive, often accompanied by other members of its pack.

The Game
Apparently, the Troodon was one of the unlisted species in the park, as they were personally deemed by John Hammond too dangerous and hard to handle with little tourism appeal, and were to be euthanized. Despite this, Dr. Laura Sorkin kept them in a secret corner of the park inside the Quarantine Pens until further notice. They would eventually escape from their Quarantine Pen and cause massive damage and chaos during the Isla Nublar Incident. They roamed the island, stalking after Nima Cruz, from the East Dock all the way to the Visitor Centre. After she was cured of the venom, the Troodon stayed near the Visitor Centre, attacking Bravo Team when they arrived. Their next successful victim was D-Caf, who was left alone to repair the helicopter while his comrades went off to rescue the survivors. The Troodon followed the survivors into the maintenance tunnels, and were able to stay under the radar for the most part, and finally attacked the group when they found the nest, which contained D-Caf's body. The pack chased them across the maintenance tunnels, and finally gave up when they reached the Marine Exhibit. However, they were eventually wiped out by the Napalm Bombing, although it is possible they may have survived by hiding in the tunnels.

Vocalizations
Being a bird-like dinosaur and relatively smart, the Troodon are highly social animals and use their intelligence to communicate oftenly when hunting in a group. They usually talk amongst one another by using a click-like sound, much similar to that of Bat or Dolphin when using ecolocation, being nocturnal Troodon aside from their large binocular eyes might have use this form to manuever around in the night by waiting out the vibrations of objects once they used ecolocation. The Troodon are very aggressive with most of their sounds being more hostile than any other dinosaur within Jurassic Park; they usually sound off raspy hisses and loud junting screams when snapping at or attacking their prey. Troodon sounds also make a few haunting hisses that large, but somewhat calming that fused alongside their clicks, it more vivid to think that this combination is usually when they leave off to the distance or in a certain area (as shown in the Quarentine Pen).

Telltale Games for the debut of their Troodon and it's role for for Jurassic Park: The Game wanted the creature to sound menacing and totally something more exotic than any of the dinosaur heard in the park so the Sound department team used did just that. The sounds of the Troodon were made up of total of 4 animals, the raspy hissing of the dinosaur was from a Leopard, the low calm hissing from a Crocodile, the loud junting snaps from a Cougar and when the animal was hurt the screeching bleats from an Elk. And the last edition to the Troodon was it's clicking sound, this sounded much similar to the sound of Predator (both of which use a similar hunting technique and have a similar role). These were made by the clicking of person using their tongue compressed on to their uvula.

The Lost World: Jurassic Park
Troodon appears in the Sega Genesis The Lost World: Jurassic Park videogame. This was the Troodon's first appearance in any Jurassic Park video game.

Jurassic Park III: Park Builder
Troodon is number. 039 of the Carnivore Ones that can be created in Jurassic Park III: Park Builder.

Jurassic Park: Survival
It was planned to appear in Jurassic Park: Survival.

Jurassic Park: Builder
Troodon is one of the available dinosaurs on the IOS application, Jurassic Park: Builder.

Trivia

 * The Troodon uses the same animations of Compsognathus and Velociraptor.

LEGO Jurassic World
Troodon are one of the dinosaurs that appear in LEGO Jurassic World. Though they have no role in the game's story, they appears as both enemy dinosaurs and they can be unlocked for Free Play by obtaining its Amber Brick in the Isla Sorna Breeding Facility level. It is one of the smaller playable dinosaurs in the game, with only the Compsognathus and Baby Velociraptor being smaller. They have no special abilities, though like most dinosaurs in the game they can be customized with certain features from other dinosaurs to grant them certain abilities. Minor enemy Troodon are encountered on Isla Sorna and Jurassic World, often in groups. Its depiction in LEGO Jurassic World is less sinister (though they are still implied to be dangerous) and they venomous bite is absent.

Trivia

 * Vargas is the first person in the franchise to be eaten by the Troodon.
 * As is the case with many dinosaur species in all Jurassic Park media, the portrayal of Troodon in Jurassic Park: The Game is inaccurate when compared with evidence from the fossil record. The real animal's head was much narrower and smaller, their eyes were much smaller (though still proportionally large), and there is no evidence to suggest they were venomous. Likewise, the parasitic breeding habits of the Game's Troodon are purely conjectural and not suggested by any available evidence.
 * Like the real dinosaur, Troodon pectinodon has a small sickle-shaped claw on each foot: a defining feature of the dromaeosaur group, to which Velociraptor, Deinonychus and Utahraptor belong. However, Troodon belonged to its own family of therapods: Troodontidae. Instead of for hunting, these claws may have been adapted for use in climbing trees in some species.
 * Troodon is the first (inherently) nocturnal predator in the Jurassic Park franchise, and one of only three carnivores that use venom as a hunting method - the other two being Dilophosaurus and Procompsognathus.
 * T. pectinodon is not a real-life species of the animal; rather, it is named after the genus Pectinodon, a very close relative of Troodon.
 * Like many of the animals in the Jurassic Park franchise, the sounds of the Troodon were created by combining the sounds of modern animals. The Troodon's vocalizations appear to have been created by mixing together dolphin clicks, various small bird calls, and the mating call of a bull elk. Its snarls and roars are similar to those of a leopard or a cougar. All of which are combined with the hiss of a crocodile to reflect the reptilian nature of the creature.
 * Troodon is the first and only parasitic dinosaur seen in the Jurassic Park franchise.
 * Dr. Sorkin claims that, unlike Henry Wu, she didn't use non-Troodon DNA to fill in the sequence gaps. This is how she thought the dinosaurs should have been created in the first place. This would make Troodon pectinodon the only genetically complete dinosaur in the park.
 * In the debut trailer for Jurassic Park: The Game, the unseen Troodon appear to have glowing yellow eyes, whereas in The Game itself, their eyes glow white.
 * There is a toy model of The Lost World Velociraptor which is identical to Troodon, although its appearance in Jurassic Park: The Game is completely different.Raptor_TLW_maqueta_(1).jpg
 * The Troodon's ability to converge venom by biting its victims, might be based upon the discovery of the Troodon's distant cousin Sinornithosaurus, that was recongnized for its unsually long fang-like teeth that had grooves on the surface and discovered for a cavity in the skull, considered to be venom gland, signifying it as the very first poisonous dinosaur.