- "Two no shows and one sick Triceratops."
- —John Hammond(src)
The Sick Triceratops was a female Triceratops that appeared during the tour of Jurassic Park. It was the only animal that the group of visitors managed to see during the opening tour of the park before it was interrupted because of a huge thunderstorm.
History[]
Creation[]
This Triceratops, like all of her kind, was recreated by InGen in the labs on Isla Sorna before being taken to Isla Nublar to be exhibited in Jurassic Park.
Jurassic Park[]
At some point before the opening tour, the Triceratops was tranquilized by Muldoon to be looked at for some kind of strange disease by the park’s Chief Veterinarian Gerry Harding.
When the group arrived at the Triceratops Enclosure, leaving their tour cars after hearing the Triceratops, Ellie Sattler was amazed by the sick, but magnificent animal, shedding tears of joy. Bringing in her skills, Ellie probed deeper into the Triceratops periodic sickness and came to the conclusion that it was because it had eaten the poisonous West Indian lilac plants in its territory, but could not initially determine how this could have happened since the animals usually didn't ingest these kind of plants or that they couldn't find any traces of it in the dinosaur's excrement.
When most of the group members returned to the tour cars in order to return to the Visitor Centre as the storm approached, Ellie decided to stay behind with Gerry Harding with the sick Triceratops a little longer.
The Triceratops was later mentioned by John Hammond as he was disappointed that the only living thing that had been seen during the interrupted opening tour was a sick dinosaur while the two other kinds of dinosaurs that should have been shown, the T. rex and the Dilophosaurus never were within view.
Post-Incident[]
It was stated by the 1994 Cleanup Team that one Triceratops was found with bite marks from the Tyrannosaur on her hide. While not confirmed, it can be assumed that this is the sick Triceratops, as it probably wouldn’t be able to defend itself in the state that it was in.
Trivia[]
- Initially, a Stegosaurus was in place of the sick dinosaur; however, this was quickly changed during production due to budget and Spielberg wanting to use his favorite dinosaur prominently in the film.
- Though not confirmed in the final film, in an early draft, Harding states that the sick animal’s name is Freda.
- In the non-canon video game LEGO Jurassic World, Harding mentions that he named the Triceratops after his daughter, Sarah, although this is never reinstated in any canon media.
- Also in LEGO Jurassic World, all Triceratops are the same design as this individual.
- Despite commonly being depicted as brown in color, the Jurassic Park Triceratops were blue-grey in color with dark patterns. However, the crew decided that akin to rhinoceros, it should be covered in dirt. However, many people misinterpreted this as its actual color scheme.
- While never confirmed in the final cut of the film, it is revealed that the Triceratops swallowed gastroliths (small, rounded stones) to help it digest and, in doing so, it unintentionally consumed the lilac berries. An image from the cut scene of Tim can be seen where he is holding one of the gastroliths, having discovered the cause of the animal's illness.