Board Thread:Movie discussion/@comment-1259419-20151215110535

There seems to be a lot of fascination with dinosaur lengths and heights lately. However, for most dinosaurs there is not a film dialog of screen used infochart we can quote as evidence. So, fans have looked elsewere. A lot of people calculate the size of a dino from the dino's screensize compared with objects with a known length.

Examples:

JpLegacy calculated that the Stegosaurus in TLW is 12 meters long, which is 2 meters larger than Stegosaurus armatus, the largest known Stegosaur. Therefore, they say that the InGen Stegosaur is an entirely new species named Stegosaurus gigantes (or something like that).

Rexy's size is an object of fierce discussion. Some compared Rexy's length with the Ford Explorer's height. The dimensions of a 1992 4-door Ford Explorer (like the one seen in the film) and added 6inches to account for the Plexiglas roof, to get an estimate of 1.8 meter (6ft) tall. When chasing Ian, we get a perfect line-up of the Tyrannosaurus as she passes the Ford Explorer, which gives us the opportunity to stack the Explorer to measure the height of the T. rex from her hip. As you can see, she falls below the 5.5 meter (18ft) marker. At most, Rexy is over 5 meter in height.

You can also use the sizes of Rexy's animatronic. The Winston Effect book reports that Rexy's animatronic was 6 meter (20 ft) tall and could stretch to 12.2 meter (40ft) long.

I do not believe screen sizes are really conclusive evidence that we should be dogmatic about. Let us look at Mosasaurus.

In JW they are feeding the Mosasaurs sharks. In interviews Trevorrow said they fed in Great White Sharks. When the Mosaurus jumps up to bite the Great White Shark, they two perfectly allign.

I have seen many articles stating different lengths, however, it is clear that the Mosaurus on screen is more than twice as large as the largest Mosasaur; which was 18 meter in length. Should we invent a new species called Mosasaurus nublaris which was 50 meters long?

Nope. The size chart in the Innovation Center says the Mosasaurus was only 55 feet (16.5 meter) long. JurassicWorld.com says it was 18 meters long. We even know its species: Mosasaurus maximus, a real-life species.

JurassicWorld.com also gives the size of Stegosaurus. Which is 8.5 meters, not the 12 meters that JPLegacy calculated.

Things like this prove that screen sizes and sizes stated in film related material often contradict. Universal has not informed us which of the two we should believe. We can not decide on our own who is right about the dinosaur's sizes.

So, I want to propose a rule for the Manual of Style:

If the size of an animal is not stated onscreen, we simply do not know. We can write in articles that this website states this length and screen calculation say that length. However, we can not be dogmatic about these lengths. Neighter can we use them to classify an animal as a subadult or an entire new species. 