PARASAUROLOPHUS

Parasaurolophus walkeri

Etymology: Walker's beside crested lizard

Nickname: "Para" or "Parasaur"

Classification: Ornithopoda, Hadrosauridae

Diet: Herbivore

Size: 9.5 meters long

Provenance: Dinosaur Park Formation, Alberta, Canada - Late Cretaceous, Campanian stage, 76.6 - 74.4 million years ago

Movie appearances: Jurassic Park (1993); The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997); Jurassic Park III (2001); Jurassic World (2015); Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018); Jurassic World: Dominion (2022); Jurassic World Rebirth (2025)

Parasaurolophus walkeri was a species of extinct hadrosaurid ornithopod, also colloquially named duck-billed dinosaurs, due to previously being thought that their bills were arranged in a very duckbill-like shape, hailing from the Late Cretaceous, in the Campanian stage. Upon its resurrection, it became known as a herd-living animal that is capable of feeding on a variety of different modern flora.

Parasaurolophus is known as a relatively docile herbivore, though it nevertheless does engage in more aggressive behaviours, particularly in territorial disputes, where they can be observed lifting on their hind legs and using their forelegs to punch each other. These dinosaurs are incredibly social and cooperative, showcasing collective care towards a sick or wounded individual. In these interactions they can also be shown to be impressively intelligent, covering their wounded counterpart with plants to mask its scent from potential predators.

Parasaurolophus became a successful de-extinct animal in the early 1980s, thanks to InGen, with a clutch of them being generated in Isla Sorna, where they were raised by workers during the early moments of their lives. A group of females were, however, transported to Isla Nublar a few months after being born, already able to walk on their own, being released to an enclosure, planned to turn into future attractions for the upcoming planned Jurassic Park, which would be open once they reached a much older age. By 1993, a herd of young adult female Parasaurolophus were already well established in the park, living alongside the resident Barosaurus, but once Hurricane Clarissa striked the island, leaving Jurassic Park to be abandoned, the herd was left to roam freely and wildly in the island; how exactly they fared after this incident is mostly shrouded in mystery.

Meanwhile, however, in Isla Sorna, Hurricane Clarissa also forced the InGen personnel to evacuate the island, releasing the dinosaurs from their enclosures before leaving, and this lead male and female Parasaurolophus to become wild in the island. Typical from a dinosaur created by InGen during these times, they were under the influence of the lysine contingency, a genetic alteration that prevented the dinosaurs from generating the lysine amino acid, however the wild populations managed to endure this by selectively feeding on lysine-rich vegetation. Few details are known about how they interacted with the other dinosaurs in the island, though its known that they would fall prey to the resident Tyrannosaurus. Later, in 1997, InGen hunters were sent to the island to capture dinosaurs for a planned revival of Jurassic Park in San Diego, and one large adult male, nicknamed Elvis, was successfully captured, however, it would later be freed again to the island. Later in the late 1990s, InGen was purchased by Simon Masrani, and the company was in possession of a infant Parasaurolophus, and Masrani got the chance to hold it.

By 2001, the wild dinosaur population of Isla Sorna remained flourished, with Parasaurolophus being observed living all across the island in large groups alongside other herbivorous dinosaurs, mostly congregating in regions with available drinking water.

Isla Sorna would eventually be stripped away from its native non-avian dinosaurian fauna, in an attempt to relocate the dinosaur population to Isla Nublar where Jurassic World would be constructed;  by 2015, Parasaurolophus would be one of its most famous attractions. However, Jurassic World collapsed upon the escape of Indominus rex, leading many of the dinosaurs in the park to roam free in Isla Nublar, including Parasaurolophus, which retained their social herd-living lifestyles, evading now new predators that were not present in Isla Sorna, like the carnivorous Baryonyx.

However, Isla Nublar suffered a massive catastrophic volcanic eruption from Mount Sibo, in 2018, and many of the local dinosaurs died, with Parasaurolophus total native population going extinct. Only some specimens have managed to be rescued out of the island. These were taken to Lockwood Manor to be sold off into illegal auction, but they eventually escaped the estate into the Californian wild lands.

By 2022, many of the de-extinct animals from Lockwood Manor have spread out across the United States and even escaped into other regions of the globe, either naturally or artificially, with wild Parasaurolophus still being known to be around in California by this time, including in the snowy hills of Sierra Nevada; efforts to capture them would still be made around this time.

This dinosaur species would eventually live up to be one of the most successful of the de-extinct animals made by InGen. Right now, eccological inferences remain to be ascertained about this animal, including recent elaborations on its daily patterns, including that it may be relatively more nocturnal than previously thought, which could explain its relatively long persistance in the wild without being captured. This species, despite being docile towards humans in controlled environments, or aggressive in times of stress, is most often spooked by the presence of humans, despite its huge size, and often runs away from them if it feels threatened.

FILM vs. REALITY

The film Parasaurolophus differs sufficiently from the real life one. The main distinction lies on the posture of the animals. The film counterparts mostly walk on two legs, with their bodies somewhat upright, and their tails nearly reaching the ground. Although capable of walking on all fours, this is not shown to be their primary mode of locomotion. The real life Parasaurolophus would have been far more robust, and mostly quadrupedal. It probably could lift up on its hind legs but only occasionally, perhaps for fighting, display or to reach tall branches. Most of the times it would walk with all its four limbs on the ground and its body and tail held horizontally. Juvenile Parasaurolophus in the films are shown with well developed crests, but in reality, the youngsters would have had an incredibly short crest that didn't yet grow into the very elongated ones that adults have.

The bills of the real life Parasaurolophus would have had much longer downward extensions of the upper jaw, while the ones in the films have them far more reduced. Although often disregarded as defenseless and spooky creatures, many hadrosaurids were large and robust enough to face against other predators, and so the real life Parasaurolophus probably could stand its ground against modestly large theropods. Although the film counterparts are shown running gracefully in two legs, the robust physique of the real life Parasaurolophus may have complicated that mode of locomotion, at least for adults, so they probably wouldn't be graceful runners, at most trotting at an accelerated pace. Juveniles, however, probably could run more gracefully on two legs if needed.

The film and real life counterparts do have in common a likely factor in the lives of these dinosaurs, which is sociality. Many hadrosaurs are known to have lived in herds, and that most likely would be a feature found in Parasaurolophus. These hadrosaurs would be generalistic herbivores, so they might be one of the herbivorous dinosaurs in the franchise most adapted to deal with modern flora. Already the real life Parasaurolophus lived in vegetatated environments dominated by a mix of gymnosperm and angiosperm diversities, therefore relatively comparable to modern floral communities.