Question: How exactly did Zia become a paleoveterinarian if she had never even seen a dinosaur beforehand? Wouldn't she need some practical experience on a living subject?
Phaneron
1st May 2025
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)
Answer: I think you could make a compelling argument that paleoveterinarians are probably held to a different standard than normal veterinarians because it's an extremely niche study. Being a paleoveterinarian is wildly specific, and having the chance for practical hands-on experience with dinosaurs would be rare and difficult to the point of being borderline impossible. Dinosaurs are only in a few specific locations, and there have been repeated incidents basically necessitating that people keep away outside of very rare exceptions. But you can't just not have them, so getting licensed is probably based more on study than experience.
12th Aug 2019
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)
Stupidity: This film reveals that the theme park was built upon a dormant volcano. This means that John Hammond either neglected to do a geological survey when picking a location for his park, or simply ignored it and foolishly gambled that the volcano would never erupt.
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Suggested correction: Lots of people live right next to dormant volcanos. It can be thousands of years before a dormant volcano erupts. Might be a risk, but not as much as lets say living on a tectonic boundary or in tornado alley.
There's a difference between assuming the risk of living in an area prone to a natural disaster versus building a theme park that's completely reliant on tourism revenue in an area prone to a natural disaster. If a person's home is destroyed by a volcano, they can eventually get a new home, even if it takes a year or two. If a multi-billion dollar theme park is destroyed by a volcano, it's not something that can be replaced so easily, especially since no insurance company in their right mind would cover any of it. Additionally, the island in this film is fictional, which means the writers deliberately chose for a volcanic eruption to be the reason for the evacuation, when they could have just as easily made it so that the military decides to carpet-bomb the island or send in ground troops to gun down all the dinosaurs.
A dormant volcano is a dormant volcano, no reason to think it will erupt only years after you build a theme park on it. The area is not "prone" to a natural disaster. The eruption is a total surprise. Vesuvius erupts once every 2 decades or something and a lot more than a simple theme park is inside its destruction zone (red zone), including 800,000 people. And that is an active volcano. Take a look at Carney Park, a military recreational facility on top of a dormant volcano. Stupid?
Also, the examples you gave are areas with civilian populations that rely on those types of attractions to help stimulate the local economy. Isla Nublar is a privately owned island with no civilian population to speak of, other than park employees, meaning it is 100% reliant on tourism for its revenue.
How many theme parks are built in California, which is severely prone to earthquakes?
That's not an apples to apples comparison. California has a heavy civilian population and theme parks help contribute to their economy. Jurassic World is located on an isolated island with no civilian population and has to rely completely on tourism to stay in business.
24th Sep 2018
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)
Question: Would any company in their right mind build a theme park (or any business for that matter) on a private island with a volcano? I know populated areas like Hawaii just assume the risk, but wouldn't a company that has the money to purchase their own island do their due diligence and make sure they won't be prone to a major catastrophe like that?
Answer: As it was stated in the film, the volcano had been dormant for many many years. Presumably even since well before the events of the first Jurassic Park movie in the early 90's. It was only recently, between the events of this film and the prior Jurassic World that the volcano had its surprise re-awakening.
For sure, but dormant simply means that the volcano could one day erupt again, so wouldn't it be pretty foolish to gamble on building a multi-billion dollar theme park with the hope that the volcano will never again erupt?
One would think. But just look at our world's history. Like Pompeii, an entire civilization wiped out cause they lived at the base of a dormant volcano. And then even in more recent history. Mount Saint Helens, which I've actually been to and seen the exhibits and footage of it's destruction. Foolish, yeah. But that doesn't stop us from still doing it repeatedly.
I think it's been made pretty clear over the course of all the films that the people building these parks did not exactly think everything through properly. They took a gamble on the volcano, and they lost.
Answer: Would add to the other answer that while "paleo-veterinarian" is not a formally recognized degree or specialization in veterinary medicine, it is a field of study and practice that involves applying veterinary knowledge to the study of extinct animals, especially dinosaurs. This includes understanding and theorizing how their anatomy, physiology, and diseases might have been, and applying this knowledge to modern animals. Though Zia apparently had no hands-on experience with living dinosaurs, she would have studied fossils and also birds and reptiles that had some relationship to extinct dinosaurs. She may also have had some access to InGen's scientific research, read their scientific publications, etc.
raywest ★