Continuity mistake: When we first meet the dinosaurs Alan is sitting in front of a lake. Ellie is standing right in front of him. After the cut Ellie comes to Alan from behind and puts her hands on his shoulders. (00:21:25)
Revealing mistake: When the T-Rex flips the Explorer over, as it settles on its roof, the stunt control wires are visible at the rear of the vehicle. This mistake was corrected on blu-ray. (01:03:40)
Continuity mistake: When the explorers break down outside the T-Rex paddock, Grant can be seen filling a flask with rainwater out of the door. When the angle changes the door is closed, then the angle changes again and he is still collecting rainwater with the door open (fixed in the VHS Widescreen and "Ultimate Collection" DVD box set versions). (00:59:00)
Audio problem: In the kitchen scene, the instant the first velociraptor hops up onto the counters, it knocks off a large metal pot. There is no sound of it hitting the ground. (01:46:05)
Continuity mistake: When Hammond watches the vehicles leaving the visitor center the first car is passed the main steps. In the next shot of the car, they are just moving past the steps. (00:39:30)
Revealing mistake: When Dr. Malcolm gets thrown through the toilet door by the T-Rex, it is most obviously a stuntman that lands on the ground and gets covered in palm leaves. (01:04:40)
Revealing mistake: In the sequence when Lex almost falls from the hole in the ceiling, she looks straight back up at the camera. Rather than cut away from the stunt double at this point, they actually bothered to CGI the actress' face over the top so they could use the sequence right through. Unfortunately you can tell what's been done. (01:51:40)
Continuity mistake: When the T-rex breaks out, on the first car, the one with the kids in it, only the regular headlights are on. When it goes over the "cliff" all the headlights are on. (01:03:20 - 01:09:10)
Audio problem: When the T-Rex is looking at the kids in the Explorer and suddenly makes her screaming sound, the kids jump and put their hands over their ears. But if you watch Tim, he doesn't make any reaction to the noise for about two seconds, then jumps like it just started. (01:02:50)
Audio problem: In the scene at the end when they're in the ceiling then the raptor hits the roof top so it breaks and Lex almost fell to the ground. Well she's always screaming but look closely at the very moment when she falls, her lips don't fit at all. (01:51:30)
Continuity mistake: When Dennis tries to get the dinosaur to fetch a stick, at first the stick is perfectly straight. Then they show a shot of Dennis from the front, and all of a sudden the stick is crooked. (01:10:05)
Continuity mistake: After being electrocuted, Tim flies down vertically, but Dr. Grant catches him horizontally. (01:39:15)
Factual error: Near the beginning, at the "Montana Badlands" dig site of Drs Grant and Sattler, a large shrub identifiable in several shots is creosotebush, a warm-desert plant that doesn't grow anywhere near Montana. Could this be California? (00:08:00)
Deliberate mistake: When the raptor breaks into the control room and is hopping around the computer workstations, we see sharp, distinct genetic coding projected from a computer screen and across the raptor's face (starting 1:55:50). Aside from the fact that computer displays have never projected focused images onto nearby surfaces, the projected text shown in this scene oddly reads from left-to-right, when it should actually be a flipped mirror-image (right-to-left). Spielberg probably realised this factual incongruity while filming but chose to use the left-to-right text for the sake of audience recognition, given that the multiple lines of "GATC" genetic code were already confusing enough. (01:55:50)
Continuity mistake: While they're in Explorer 5, when Ian shows Ellie an example of "unpredictability" her watch reads 5:00, then when Ellie examines the Triceratops' tongue her watch has sped forward and reads approximately 6:05, and a moment later when Dr. Harding hands Ellie the flashlight her watch has run backwards, and now reads approx 5:40. (00:50:40)
Continuity mistake: Just as they start going down the wire into the T-Rex paddock, in addition to the problem mentioned above with the ground level suddenly dropping, take a look at the wire. In the first shot underneath them it's curling up and towards the camera, like it's caught on something, then it changes angle, and the wire's hanging straight down. (01:06:15)
Continuity mistake: When Dr. Grant is scaring the kid with his Raptor claw, the pouches on his belt holding his knife and things move around. (00:07:20)
Continuity mistake: When Grant is taking the two children back to the visitor center ("Big Tim, the human piece of toast") Tim's ear is perfectly clean. In the next scene, the children are eating cake when suddenly a raptor's shadow appears on the wall; Tim's ear is covered with blood. Next scene with the hide-and-seek with the raptors in the kitchen you can see the same ear several times and it is perfectly clean. (01:41:40 - 01:45:40)
Continuity mistake: When Ellie is turning on the circuit breakers she turns on "Herbivore Feeding Compound", "Visitors Cntr. Compound", "Visitors Cntr. Control Rm", and goes to press "Visitors Cntr. Tour". In the next shot of her she presses "Visitors Cntr. Control Rm." and "Visitors Cntr. Tour" again. (01:42:55)
Continuity mistake: When Sam Neill found the eggshells beside the root of the tree, they are on the dark soil. In the other shot, the same eggshells are on the clear sand. (01:27:40)
Answer: They are not paleontologists, just people interested in dinosaurs. It is common for museums and other scientific organizations to offer the general public an opportunity to participate in a real paleontology dig. For a fee, they become an exhibition team member for a period of time, learn about dinosaurs, help excavate fossils, and so on. This is likely how Dr. Grant (or his institution) supplements his research funding.
raywest ★