Revealing mistake: When the Dilophosaurus opens its crest, you can see the strings pulling it open. This has been fixed on blu-ray.
Continuity mistake: When Tim and Lex first arrive, Lex is wearing a purple tank top with a colorful design, and in the following scenes or even between consecutive shots her tank top changes to completely different designs, though it's the same style of tank top.
Continuity mistake: After the T. Rex rolls Explorer 4 upside-down with Lex and Tim inside, in the closeup when the dinosaur bites on the rubber tire we see the hub hole at the center of the wheel rim, but two shots later the wheel cover is back on the wheel.
Revealing mistake: In the scenes where there's a video link to the docks shown on computer, there's a bar moving along the bottom of the screen, showing us that it's actually a video that's just playing on the computer. (00:52:05)
Continuity mistake: Just before the Tyrannosaurus Rex escapes from its pen, it drops a goat's leg on Lex and Timmy's car. When it comes back to attack them, the leg is gone. Then it appears and disappears. (01:00:25)
Revealing mistake: While the T. Rex attacks Explorer 4, when Lex and Tim are holding the roof up with their hands and feet, in one of the interior closeups after the T. Rex has lost its tooth we can see the metal post jutting out from the dinosaur's gum, to which the fake tooth is attached in the animatronic's mouth.
Continuity mistake: When the tour trucks are stopped outside the Tyrannosaurus Rex paddock, we are shown a goat in a cage (inside the paddock) that appears to be at the same level as the road (outside). However, when Dr. Grant and Lex go over the wall, the ground is several stories down. (01:06:10)
Visible crew/equipment: Watch carefully the scene where the raptors enter the kitchen (that angle where you can see almost the whole kitchen while raptors are coming in from the far away door). As the first raptor enters the kitchen, you can see someone grabbing its tail to hold the puppet-thing steady. (01:44:40)
Continuity mistake: When Lex and Tim are in the car and the T-rex is attacking them, at one point the T-rex smashes through the roof of the car and the clear roof falls through on top of Lex and Tim. The T-rex breaks it with her teeth, but in the next shot it's whole again. (01:03:20)
Continuity mistake: When the lawyer jumps out of the Explorer (just before the T-Rex approaches) he leaves the Explorer door open. In the next two shots the jeep door is closed, but when the T-Rex shows up, the boy moves to the door and closes it. (01:01:40)
Continuity mistake: While Lex and Tim are hiding in the kitchen, when the large serving spoon falls it cuts to the closeup of the two Velociraptors and the tall shelving unit has vanished, but in the next shot when the one of the raptors leaps onto the counter that tall shelving unit is back.
Visible crew/equipment: While Jophery's being attacked by the Velociraptors he's pulled out of Muldoon's arms, and when Jophery is yanked upward we can see the stunt cable at his side attached to the harness.
Continuity mistake: Take note when the vehicle starts chasing Sam Neill and the kid down the tree. When it first starts to fall, it smashes a headlight and damages a foglight. In the next shot both lights are undamaged and operational. (01:14:20)
Visible crew/equipment: After Ian is thrown to the ground by the T. Rex, it cuts to Gennaro sitting in the collapsing bathroom hut, and we can see the set's scaffolding at the top of the screen. This is best seen on fullscreen DVD/VHS.
Continuity mistake: After Gennaro runs off to hide in the restroom there's a shot of the fence cables ripping apart, and in the following shot of the back of one of the Explorers note that it's missing its black roof vent (and rear wiper), but in following shots of Explorers 4 and 5 the vents are intact on both vehicles. Then just as the T. Rex starts pushing Explorer 4 upside-down its roof vent is gone (presumably, the vehicle missing the vent is a stunt vehicle).
Visible crew/equipment: After escaping the T. Rex, when Alan and the kids climb the huge tree we can see a bit of what looks like netting at the top right side of the screen and also the set's scaffolding at the left side, then after the scene with Hammond and Ellie in the dining hall, when it cuts back to Alan and the kids we can see much more of the netting behind the tree set, at the top of the screen.
Continuity mistake: When Ellie and Muldoon rescue Ian they leave him in Jeep 10 while they go looking for Alan and the kids, and after the closeup of the water filled T. Rex footprint showing an impact tremor, the next shot zooms in on Ian and we can see the driver's side-view mirror has no writing on it. When they're being chased by the T. Rex, in the shots from behind the Jeep we can see that both side-view mirrors have writing at the top and bottom (shown in closeup "objects in mirror are closer than they appear").
Visible crew/equipment: In the opening scene, a velociraptor is being introduced into the park from a shipping container. The velociraptor runs into the gate as it opens, knocking Jophery off the top; he falls to the ground and is attacked. As he falls, two hands come in to break his fall and prevent him from hitting the camera or hurting himself. (00:02:30)
Continuity mistake: When Alan and the kids are about to climb the fence, when he throws a stick at the fence, his hair is messed up, it is sunny and windy. In the next scene his hair is perfectly fixed and it is shady, and it is not windy. (01:36:10)
Revealing mistake: When the T-Rex has a raptor in its mouth at the end, the raptor disappears completely from the T-Rex's mouth for one frame. It's just after it's picked up - the T-Rex swings it left, then right, and as it swings to its left again the raptor disappears. If you want to be even more precise, there's a slatted/stepped white bit above the door - the raptor disappears about 3 frames after its foot moves above that white bit. (01:52:20)
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 ★