Tim Murphy's father knows close to nothing about dinosaurs and prefers sports, usally baseball. He is mentioned a few times in the Jurassic Park novel.
In perhaps his most notable appearance, Tim's family went to an unspecified Natural History Museum (though it is very likely the American Museum of Natural History). Tim's father made several incorrect statements about a Camptosaurus skeleton, with Tim constantly correcting him. Then his father noticed Tim concentrating on a Tyrannosaurus skeleton and asked why he was looking at it for so long. Tim was counting the vertebrae, because he believed it had the wrong amount. Stunned by how the museum could have a skeleton that was wrong, his father stomped off towards a security guard to ask. He came back, having been told that the dinosaur was wrong, and said to Tim that "you really do have dinosaurs on the brain." They then left to see the rest of the Mets game on TV, much to Tim's displeasure and his younger sister Lex's enjoyment. Tim recounted this event to Alan Grant.
At the time of the Jurassic Park incident, Tim's father was in the process of divorcing Tim's mother and had moved to Mill Valley.[1]
He disapproves of Tim's love of dinosaurs and wishes that the boy would get out and play some sports like other boys his age. He seems to encourage Lex to bully Tim about liking dinosaurs, saying that they're only worth the attention of male toddlers. Of course, Tim proves her wrong by helping her evade the dinosaurs during the Isla Nublar Incident.
Sources[]
- ↑ Jurassic Park (novel), page 233