The Entire Premise Of Jurassic Park Is Wrong Because Of Mosquitos

The Entire Premise Of Jurassic Park Is Wrong Because Of Mosquitos

You’re probably going to want to sit down for this one. And hold your loved ones near if you’ve got them, because it’s time to wake up from our slumber of lies — apparently Jurassic Park is, in fact, not scientifically accurate. All because of one little, mistyped mosquito.

For the uninitiated (i.e. those presumably raised in Cold-War-Era bomb shelters), the entire film series is possible because scientists extract blood from the gut of an amber-preserved prehistoric mosquito. Then, they use that DNA to clone the gigantic lizard mosters of the Jurassic period, place them all on an island, and create a much more exciting, fatal sort of Disney World. You know, science.

However, as Navy entomologist Joe Conlon told Business Insider, the species of mosquito shown in the film (Toxorhynchites rutilus) never actually fed on blood. What’s more, they could have used any other species of mosquito and been fine — our Toxorhynchites rutilus friend is the only type that doesn’t. Of course, another issue comes in the fact that DNA can’t in any way stay viable for 80 million years (among a few other tiny things ranging from to the fact that there’s never any explanation as to how they got the prehistoric plant DNA to why in god’s name no one ever shut up that girl), but hey, details.

We do apologise for lifting the comforting veil of deceit, but you needed to know. Thanks for the lies, Spielberg. [Business Insider]


The Cheapest NBN 50 Plans

It’s the most popular NBN speed in Australia for a reason. Here are the cheapest plans available.

At Gizmodo, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.