INDOMINUS

Indominus rex

Etymology: King of the indomitables

Nickname: "I. rex"

Classification: Hybrid of Deinosuchus + Iguanacolossus + Deinonychus + Tyrannosaurus rex + Tyrannosaurus vannus + Rugops + Majungasaurus + Carnotaurus + Quilmesaurus + Pycnonemosaurus + Viavenator

Diet: Carnivore

Size: 13.5 meters long

Provenance: Isla Nublar, Costa Rica - Holocene epoch, 0 million years ago

Movie appearances: Jurassic World (2015)

Indominus rex was a hybrid dinosaur, and a major actor in the collapse of Jurassic World. It contains DNA from several Mesozoic creatures, including Deinosuchus, Iguanacolossus, Deinonychus, Tyrannosaurus rex, Tyrannosaurus vannus, Rugops, Majungasaurus, Carnotaurus, Quilmesaurus, Pycnonemosaurus and Viavenator. It is a pretty intelligent animal, a trait inherited from its Deinonychus DNA. When fully grown Indominus rex was expected to exceed the size of Tyrannosaurus rex. A collection of genes from abelisaurids (Rugops, Majungasaurus, Carnotaurus, Quilmesaurus, Pycnonemosaurus and Quilmesaurus) were added to give it its relatively more rounded skull, its horns and its armored scales on its dorso, as well as a more flexible tail. Some DNA from cuttlefish was also added in this hybrid to aid in its accelerated growth, with chromatophores for color and skin texture changing was incorporated in the animal as a side effect. Tree frog DNA was also added to allow the hybrid to withstand a tropical climate, with an unseen side effect of this genetic inclusion being the ability to mask its thermal signature, allowing it to escape detection from infrared heat cameras. DNA from pit vipers is also present to allow it to detect their prey's heat radiation, and also manifests morphologically by allowing it to open its mouth at around 90 degrees to engulf large or very round targets.

Indominus rex was created by InGen's chief scientist Dr. Henry Wu, who has previously created original hybrid species in the 1990s and the 2000s. In the early 2010s, the success of Jurassic World was diminishing, and to enhance public reception of the park, Simon Masrani attended a meeting in 2012, in which the board of his company unanimously desired a new costumized attraction for Jurassic World to satisfy investors. This pressure led the Indominus rex to be created later that year, with two of them being successfully created, though one of them was cannibalized by the other. The sole female individual left grew to massive sizes very quickly up until she became a young adult in late 2015; one day she decided to mask her temperature signature, after leaving massive claw marks on her enclosure's wall, a surprisingly effective tactic to make people think she escaped by climbing the walls. This was in fact a trap, as the gates of the enclosure were opened to let people investigate, only for the Indominus rex to reveal herself and escape the enclosure; she then travelled south, sensing the presence of the multiple visitors in the Main Street of the park. Remembering where her tracker was implanted, she clawed it out, alongside some of the flesh that it was attached to, and proceeded to ambush and kill most members of the Asset Containment Unit that were sent to take her down, leading the Jurassic World staff to prepare for an evacuation of the island. Later, Zach and Gray Mitchell, two boys wandering around in a gyrosphere, encounter the Indominus rex who attacked them, using her wide mouth gape to bite the gyrosphere. Not able to crunch the heavy glassed gyrosphere, she tried to smash it, and the two brothers escape just in time from the damaged gyrosphere, running away and jumping through a waterfall to evade the hybrid. The kids that were being housed in Camp Cretaceous were also attacked by the Indominus rex, escaping by stealing an ACU van and driving it off a cliff. The Indominus rex later encountered a herd of Dicraeosaurus, killing five and fatally injuring one, before moving to the restricted area of the island; a notable detail is that she found no interest in eating them, instead killing them for sport. The Indominus rex later broke into the aviary, releasing Arambourgiania and Coloborhynchus, an incident that caused the death of Simon Masrani. Ordered by Vic Hoskins, Owen Grady reluctantly leads the park's Deinonychus quartet to confront the Indominus rex, but it was later realized that the hybrid could communicate with the dromaeosaurids due to her genetics containing Deinonychus DNA, and they switched sides and joined her against the containment unit sent to attack her. The Indominus rex finally reached the Main Street, with the four Deinonychus at her side, ready to kill Owen Grady, Claire Dearing and the Mitchell brothers. However, Owen regains the Deinonychus trust, leading them to turn against the Indominus rex, however, the hybrid kills all of the dromaeosaurids, except for Blue. Claire Dearing later released the park's Tyrannosaurus rex and led it against the hybrid, but the Indominus rex defeats the tyrannosaur. However, before the hybrid could kill the Tyrannosaurus rex, Blue came rushing to take down Indominus rex, allowing the tyrannosaur to join forces with the raptor in battling the monster. The Indominus rex, despite wounded and injured, still stood her ground to resume her fight against both of their attackers, at the edge of the park's lagoon. However, the hybrid finally met her end, when the Shonisaurus beached itself to catch the Indominus rex, dragging her to the depths, and killing her, leaving her remains underwater. 

After the closure of Jurassic World, a team was sent to retrieve DNA from the Indominus rex corpse, carving out a rib bone of the hybrid via a submarine that was sent to the Shonisaurus lagoon; the ichthyosaur was believed to have died of starvation, but by going there they found out it actually was still alive. The rib was taken and its genetic material was extracted to aid in the creation of the Indoraptor, but the rib itself was stomped and destroyed by the escaped Tyrannosaurus rex in Lockwood Manor, in 2018. The Indominus rex is remembered as an abominable creation caused by corporate greed, and it serves as a valuable cautionary tale.

Indominus rex was rather unique, having very well developed forelimbs from its Iguanacolossus DNA, possessing slightly opposable first digits and three large claws on each of its first three fingers, a trait taken from Deinonychus. It displays immense physical strength, able to slaughter a Barosaurus and even bend steel girders. Some of its teeth were imperfectly oriented, often having a few of them broken or dislodged. Its jaw is capable of unhinging itself, permitting the hybrid to devout large objects, such as a gyrosphere. It is capable of sensing the thermal signatures of its prey, due to its pit viper DNA. Its high intelligence and communication tactics hails from its Deinonychus DNA. It seems to be a naturally cannibalistic species, having eaten her own sibling as soon as she hatched.

Indominus rex is a solitary hunter, not showing much coordination when hunting with conspecifics. When engaging with other large theropods, Indominus rex firstly inspects its opponent, assessing its strengths, before deciding to make a move. However, when encountering Deinonychus, it resorts with establishing a communicative bond with them. However, Indominus rex, due to its immense strength and indomitable nature, easily becomes aggressive when her own dominance is challenged, which is demonstrated by her attacking and killing several of the Deinonychus that once served her. This implies that pack dominance in Indominus rex is engaged by acts of anger and forceful assertions of hierarchical rule.

FILM vs. REALITY

In reality, Indominus rex was not a real animal, with the hybrid being a completely fictional animal from this film franchise. However, all of its genetic material hails from real animals, both modern and extinct. In terms of anatomy, the Indominus rex from the film seems to draw its appearance mostly, or entirely, from extinct Mesozoic animals, those being Deinosuchus, Giganotosaurus, Tyrannosaurus rex, Therizinosaurus, Velociraptor, Rugops, Majungasaurus, Carnotaurus, Quilmesaurus, Pycnonemosaurus and Viavenator. The exposed teeth and lack of fleshy lips is consistent with Deinosuchus, as well as its quadrupedal gait, thick skin and presence of osteoderms in its back. Traits from Giganotosaurus can be identified by its very large size, larger than Tyrannosaurus rex, and its skull shape resembling that of a typical allosauroid. Tyrannosaurus rex traits can be identified by its large size and robustness. Therizinosaurus traits can be identified by the presence of large arms with enormous claws. Its high intelligence and its feathery integument can be identified from Velociraptor. Abelisaurid traits, coming from Rugops, Majungasaurus, Carnotaurus, Quilmesaurus, Pycnonemosaurus and Viavenator, can be identified by the osteoderm-like scales on its back, arranged in a disorganized manner, long legs (in the case of carnotaurine abelisaurids), horns, flexible tail, and a roughly rounder and wider skull shape, as well as a wide mouth gape. However, some traits that the Indominus rex can't realistically be traced to the animals that compose its genetic material. For example, hands capable of advanced pronation, like the one shown in the movie, is unknown from any of these genera. Additionally the hands of Indominus rex contain a dramatically opposable thumb, which is unknown in any of these animals, and the presence of a clawed fourth finger is also not known from any of these organisms. The full size of Indominus rex is also said to be about 16 meters, which none of the animals that compose its DNA reach to. Its nostrils are also depicted with a tear-like shape with mobile muscular lining, which is more in line with therian mammal nostrils than reptilian ones.

Because of this, a more accurate Indominus rex would look slightly different if it actually existed. Firstly, however, it has to be noted that the way Giganotosaurus, Therizinosaurus and Velociraptor are depicted in the franchise is inconsistent with their real life counterparts, therefore one should consider replacing them with other dinosaurs that most reflect their appearance and behavior in the films (for this case, Tyrannosaurus vannus, Iguanacolossus and Deinonychus represent substitutes to these). The size of Indominus rex remains very large but not surpassing by much the size of Tyrannosaurus rex. The most corrected trait is its arms and hands. Indominus rex is depicted as being capable of facultative quadrupedality, however, the arms and hands of the original design don't seem to be well adapted for that task. Because of this, and considering the Iguanacolossus replacement, it would be expected for it to inherit very robust forelimbs, with broad hands to attack and for weight-bearing. The hands retain three large clawed fingers, but the fourth finger would be clawless, as that's a general trait for all archosaurs. The nostrils are corrected to have a circular shape and lacking muscular lining. The tooth arrangement is also slightly corrected to be more natural. The horns of Indominus rex are also made to be more similar to those of Carnotaurus.