Jurassic World’s Dinosaur Expert Confirms That Jurassic Park Could Exist

To celebrate the opening of Jurassic World, ComicBook.com was invited to a special event that took place in the center of Dinosaur Hall at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles. There world-famous paleontologist, Jack Horner, who has consulted on all four Jurassic Park films spoke to the press in a panel moderated by Michael Shermer of Skeptic magazine.

The most fascinating fact delivered during the panel is that Horner and Steven Spielberg, the original director of Jurassic Park, had arguments about how the dinosaurs were to look in the first film.

"I wanted the dinosaurs to be full of color and feathery," Horner said. "Spielberg wanted them dark and leathery. So in Jurassic World, I convinced them to add some more color to the dinosaurs. There could be pink dinosaurs for all we know. But try telling a six year old boy that fact and see if he believes you."

Shermer then asked Horner if he thought scientists could actually bring back a dinosaur.

"Everyone is trying to bring back all sorts of animals. No one has ever gotten a fragment of DNA from a dinosaur," Horner said. "Because once 10,000 years passes, the DNA degradates. But we can find pieces of proteins. Birds are living dinosaurs. They carry some part of ancestral dna of dinosaurs. So we could maybe turn on the old dna markers in a bird. Take a bird that doesn't have a tail and suddenly give it a tail."

This brought some surprise from the crowd, and a follow-up question from Shermer.

"Could it be done realistically," Shermer asked, "Could we bring back the dinosaurs?"

"Well, we could make a dino hybrid animal," Horner replied. "So yes. But a full on velociraptor would be very difficult. Once we have the tech, we could transform any bird to a dinosaur. Even chickens and make a chickenosaurus.

Sherman then posed a question to Horner about the ethics of having a park full of dinosaurs. Would it even be safe?

"Dinosaurs are not all that scary actually. As long as you kept the windows rolled up, you'd be okay." Horner continued, "You could have a Jurassic world and you could have it at the LA zoo. Because Animals aren't like that. Even the velociraptor, which i think is the nastiest villain ever. They wouldn't tear open your vehicle to get you. In a real Jurassic Park, you'd see a whole bunch of dinosaurs sleeping just like a real animal park.

Horner then revealed that he had a small cameo in the film in the beginning during the dinosaur training session.

"Luckily, I did not get eaten, " Horner added.

Closing out the panel was a final question of the press asking Horner his thoughts on the new film.

"I thought it was great fun," said Horner. "I really like the hybrid (Indominus Rex) and the notion of it. I've been trying for years to get characteristics like camouflage into a film like this. And it finally happened.

Before the real Jurassic Park is built, run into theaters and see if you agree with Jack Horner's thoughts on the film opening today.