The movie Jurassic Park is a science fiction film based on the events that take place in a dinosaur themed park. In the movie Jurassic Park many of the key biological concepts are exhibited within the fictional events throughout the film. The movie shows the viewers examples of ecology, cells, genetics, and evolution, through the use of fictional occurrences.
The first key concept of biology shown in the movie Jurassic Park is ecology. Ecology is the study of organisms and how they interact with each other and other organisms. The first way that the movie Jurassic Park shows ecology is by the use of food chains and food webs. Food chains are transfers of energy between organisms by consumption. A food web is a complex interaction formed by feeding interactions between organisms. The Tyrannosaurs Rex ate the raptor, the raptor ate the goat, and the goat eats grass.This is an example of a food chain because it shows the way that the dinosaurs interact with each other by the consumption of food which transfers energy to organisms. This also shows the food web. It shows the food web because these animals eat one another, and get energy from the consumption of one another, but in a food web more animals would be involved. For example, in the food web the T-rex are the raptor, the raptor ate the goat, the goat ate the grass, the grass got its energy from the sun. A second example of how the movie Jurassic Park exhibits ecology is by the biomes in which the dinosaurs live. A biome is a collection of ecosystems that obtain similar organisms and a similar climate. The dinosaurs live in a rain forest, as well as a deciduous forest biome. This fits into ecology because ecology is how the organisms act forwards their environment. The herbivores eat the leaves that grow in their biomes, so it is a consumer-producer relationship. A third way that the movie Jurassic Park exhibits ecology is in symbiosis. Symbiosis is a affiliation of two organisms and living closely to one another. In the movie, the dinosaurs lived in different paddocks, but they all lived closely together in the same type of biome. The fourth way that the movie Jurassic Park exhibits ecology is by showing competition, or limited resources. Competition refers to the conflict between living things over food, resources, or a potential breeding partner. In the movie, the Dilophosaurus has large fans that expand of its head and squirts venom when it is threatened. This shows how the dinosaurs have to use predatory instincts in order to obtain food, territory, or a mate when other animals may be posing completion or a threat to them. A fifth way in which the movie Jurassic Park shows factors of ecology is in the use of invasive species. Invasive species are species not native to a specific region, and are believed to cause damage to some extent. In the movie, the dinosaurs are the invasive species because they are the species that did not naturally occur on the island. The people were on the island first, then the dinosaurs were created. The last way that the movie Jurassic Park shows ecology is by the use of nutrient cycles. Nutrient cycles are the recycling of a chemical substance that an organism needs to sustain life. Some examples of nutrient cycles are water, nitrogen, carbon, and oxygen. The movie shows examples of the nutrient cycles because the people need oxygen to live, they need water to drink and survive, nitrogen to build our amino acids that make up our body, and carbon to help our cells preform specific activities.
In the movie Jurassic Park examples of other key biological components are shown as well, such as cells. Cells are the basic unit of all forms of life. One example of how cells are used in the movie is by the process of cell reproduction. Cell reproduction is the division of one cell to form two new cells. In the movie Jurassic Park, an example of cell reproduction is when they took the DNA from one single mosquito, and duplicated it over and over to form a whole organism, or in this case, a dinosaur. Another way that cells are expressed is in organelles of the cell. Organelles are structures inside a cell that preform specific functions. Examples of organelles are mitochondria, chloroplast, and endoplasmic reticulum. In the movie, cell organelles are shown within the dinosaurs and plants. The food the dinosaurs eat gets turned into energy by the mitochondria. The plants take in sunlight through the chloroplast which makes energy for the plant. Another example of how cells are shown throughout the movie is in the use of cell processes. Cell processes are activities that take place within the cell in order to provide proper functionality of the cell and proper survival of the organism. Some examples of cell processes are cellular respiration, which is when food is turned into energy in the presence of oxygen, photosynthesis, which is the process of turning sunlight into energy, diffusion, which is the movement of particles from an of high concentration to an area of low concentration, and osmosis, which is the diffusion of water through a semi permeable membrane. In the movie Jurassic Park, the processes of cellular respiration and photosynthesis are shown. Cellular respiration is shown when the T-Rex ate the raptor, which then turned into energy, and the T-Rex had energy to sustain any other activities. Photosynthesis is shown in the enormous amounts of plant life in the movie. When they landed on the island, they were immediately surrounded by plant life. This is because in the biome they live in, it is very sunny and they get large amounts of rain as well. Therefore, the plants get the energy from the sun they need to sustain life, as well as the nutrients from the water they need to survive. The last way that the movie Jurassic Park shows the use of cells is in cell research, such as cloning, which is producing an organisms with genetically identical cells produced from a single cell, and by the use of stem cells, which are unspecialized cells that can be specialized to preform different cellular functions. In the movie, they used cloning when they took the DNA out if the first dinosaur and created more and more with the same genetically identical cells. They also used stem cells because they used the mosquito DNA as a base for all the different dinosaurs.
A third key biological component that the movie, Jurassic Park conveys is genetics. Genetics are the scientific study of heredity. The first way the movie used genetics is in DNA structure. The scientists created DNA structure by getting the mosquito DNA and filling in the gaps in the DNA with frog DNA. A second way that the movie uses genetics is in the use of chromosomes, genes and alleles. Chromosomes are thread like structures in the nucleus of a cell which has genetic information to be passed from one generation to the next generation. The movie uses chromosomes by passing the chromosomes from the previous dinosaurs which was found in the mosquito, and passed along to the new dinosaurs. They did the same thing with the old dinosaurs genes, which are genetic traits passed from parent to offspring, and the alleles, which are one of a number of different forms of a gene. A third way that the movie displays use of genetics is in the use of genetic engineering, in this case manipulating DNA. Genetic engineering is the manipulation of one organisms genetic material. The scientists used manipulation of the original DNA found in the mosquito in order to create the different species of dinosaurs and manipulated their DNA to differentiate them. A fourth way that the movie shows genetics is in the use of selective breeding. Selective breeding is a way of breeding in which only the organisms with the desired characteristics can produce the next generation. The movie has selective breeding in it because only female dinosaurs were bred, so that no dinosaurs could reproduce in the wild.
The last key biological concept shown in the movie Jurassic Park is evolution. Evolution is the change in organisms over time. One example of evolution that is shown in Jurassic Park is natural selection. Natural selection is when animals better suited to their environment have a better chance of survival and reproduction. In the movie, the dinosaurs that ate the leaves at the tops of the trees were more likely to survive if they had a longer neck because they could easily reach the leaves at the top of the tree. Another example of evolution are fossils. Fossils are preserved remains of ancient organisms. In the movie, the scientists were uncovering the dinosaur fossils which were buried underneath millions of years of sand debris. Fossils can give scientists many insights on what previous organisms bodily structures looked like. A third example of evolution is the geological time scale. The geological time scale is a timeline used to show earths history. In the movie Jurassic Park, the geological time scale is shown in the movie because it explained how the dinosaurs went from being unextinct, back to extinct, then back to unextinct again. The last example of how evolution is shown in the movie Jurassic Park is through the use of the four evidences. The four evidences are fossils, embryology, comparative anatomy and molecular biology. Fossils are preserved remains of ancient organisms. In the movie, the scientists were dusting off fossils of dinosaurs remains. This shows them how the dinosaurs anatomical structured have changed over time. Embryology is the study of embryonic development in vertebrates. In the movie, the scientists studied the embryos of the different dinosaurs and used mutations to create different kinds of dinosaurs. Comparative anatomy is the study of the anatomies of different organisms. In the movie, comparative anatomy was shown when the scientists were discovering the fossils and finding out what certain bones and other anatomical structures were used for in some of the different dinosaurs. Lastly, molecular biology is shown. Molecular biology is when universal genetic codes and homologous molecules provide evidence for common descent. In the movie, the scientist used the DNA from the mosquito and saw that it coded for the DNA of a dinosaur, which is why they were able to make new organisms that come from the ones of common descent.
In conclusion, the movie Jurassic Park shows many of the key biological concepts. The key biological concepts of ecology, cells, genetics, and evolution are conveyed. These concepts are shown through many fictional events that take place in the movie. Many of the events in the movie are unrealistic, such as the T-Rex going right in front of the characters and not smelling them, however it does provide a solid foundation for the understanding of key biological concepts.