Tyrannosaurus Father (S/F)

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The tyrannosaur buck (1997)

This male Tyrannosaurus rex was one of the first seven of his kind ever brought back from extinction by International Genetic Technologies, Inc. between 1988 and 1993. He was bred on Isla Sorna, where he lived for most of his life. During May of 1997, he was involved with a series of incidents which led to the general public learning about de-extinction, which had until then been kept under wraps by InGen due to corporate disasters occurring in 1993. During the 1997 incidents, he was shipped to San Diego, California for exhibition in a revitalized version of Jurassic Park. Mismanagement caused him to become released into the city where he encountered civilians and caused at least one death. Because he was the first de-extinct animal the public witnessed, he is widely considered to be the most significant dinosaur in the history of de-extinction politics.

In 2017, he is believed to have been illegally acquired from Isla Sorna by InGen’s rival Biosyn and was relocated to a corporate sanctuary in Biosyn Valley, Italy. He and his mate will live there for the remainder of their days.

Name

If InGen or Biosyn gave this animal a name, it is not known. Most likely, he is officially recognized by a specimen number, though staff probably nicknamed him for convenience and familiarity. He has been referred to simply as “the buck” or “the bull,” though these terms are more commonly applied to mammals.

Biography
Early life

InGen cloned its first Tyrannosaurus in 1988, and six more followed. All were bred at the Site B Embryonics laboratory located on Isla Sorna, which InGen was leasing from Costa Rica. This male was among the seven (though his exact date of hatching is unknown), all of which were maintained in a paddock on the island. Not much is known about his early life due to InGen’s secrecy about this period of its history. A year after the first tyrannosaur was hatched, that eldest individual was moved off the island, leaving six.

The health of InGen animals was often insufficient. These were creatures that had never existed in human history, and even with paleontological knowledge to build off of, genetic engineering inevitably created alterations to their biology that made them even more difficult to understand. Still, this male grew to a healthy eight-ton weight, reaching fifteen to sixteen feet at the hip and forty feet long from premaxilla to the tip of the caudals. Eventually, cuts to InGen’s budget made understanding the dinosaurs nearly impossible for their scientists, and after a serious corporate disaster in 1993, activity on Isla Sorna began ramping down.

Life in the wild

Isla Sorna was fully abandoned in 1995 when it was ravaged by Hurricane Clarissa, and the dinosaurs were allowed to roam in the wild with the understanding that they would die out. InGen’s scientists, working under Dr. Henry Wu, had engineered them to be dependent on lysine supplements; without these they would become fatally comatose within a week. However, this did not come to pass. In the wild, predatory animals such as this tyrannosaur were feeding themselves, and their diets contained meat from the herbivorous dinosaurs which themselves were feeding on beans, soy, and other lysine-rich plants. The lysine moved up the food chain, keeping the dinosaurs healthy. Eggs and fish may have provided other alternate sources of lysine. In any case, the tyrannosaurs and other dinosaurs were not only getting by, they had found a way to thrive without human intervention.

This male grew to adulthood by the 1990s, and with adulthood came one of the fundamental drives of any wild animal: the urge to find a mate and breed. With only six tyrannosaurs on the island, mate selection was at a premium, and competition was high. He fought at least one other male for the right to mate, leaving him with scarring and broken tooth sockets on the right side of his face. But he came out of that mating season having been chosen by one of the population’s very few females, and before long, she was gravid and preparing to lay eggs.

Together they built a nest in the island’s eastern region, away from the central island where most of the predators lived. No hunter on the island could challenge an adult Tyrannosaurus, but any of them could threaten a juvenile, and the crafty Velociraptors and aggressive Carnotaurus were notable dangers. Their nest was constructed so that they could hunt downwind of it, ensuring that they could always smell the nest when they were away. This would allow them to detect invaders before any harm could come to their offspring. It is unknown how many eggs were originally laid, but by the spring of 1997, they had only one surviving descendant, a male.

Although it was primarily the father’s job to hunt for his family, both he and his mate shared in caring and providing for their son. They hunted in the areas nearby, particularly a game trail in the northeast where prey was abundant. Hadrosaurs such as Parasaurolophus and Edmontosaurus constituted the bulk of their diet, though smaller fare such as Pachycephalosaurus was also taken; this appears to have been their son’s favorite as he was seen to choose it over any of the other available food. They ensured that a stockpile of meat was always available. After some time, their son was old enough that he could be left alone for a few hours while his parents hunted or patrolled the area. He was not yet ready to leave the nest, though.

1997 incident

On May 28, 1997, this tyrannosaur and his mate caught the scent of strange animals at their nest. By the time they arrived, their fears had been realized: their son was gone. Whatever had taken him had acted fast, anticipating the parents’ response and predicting their behavior. They were facing an adversary that was intelligent and strategic, even more so than the raptors. Using their sense of smell, they tracked down their son’s location until they could hear his distressed wailing. Knowing that he was alive, they rushed to his aid.

At the island’s northern cliffs, they discovered the culprits: humans had returned to Isla Sorna, and they had set up an encampment. Their son was within one of the humans’ vehicles, injured and restrained. There were three humans inside; none were any the tyrannosaurs would have recalled from years before, since all of them were new to Isla Sorna. These included Dr. Sarah Harding, a paleobiologist, Nick Van Owen, an environmental activist, and Dr. Ian Malcolm, a mathematician. The father confronted the humans from one end of the trailers while the mother approached the end where their son was being held. She had already made a threat display, and now both of them continued to relay to the humans just how serious they were about getting their son back. The humans clearly understood the message, and cautiously let the young tyrannosaur back out into the open. He rejoined his parents, who shepherded their injured son to the safety of the treeline.

Just getting him back safely was not enough. The tyrannosaurs needed to neutralize the threat to their young and their territory. Having placed him safely in the shelter of the jungle, and knowing their rage would keep other predators at bay, they charged the trailers and pushed them to the edge of the cliff. While the vehicles did not go all the way over, the rear car was left dangling over the edge, which would deposit the humans into the sea below. The treacherous rocky coast would ensure their swift demise. Satisfied that the threat was over, the parents began to return home, but before long they were drawn back to the attack site: there was more activity there. A fourth human (the mechanic Eddie Carr) had appeared in another vehicle and was attempting to pull the trailers back up, meaning the humans inside the trailers might still be alive. The parents again left their son someplace safe and attacked. The father ripped the top off of the vehicle, tearing into it while his mate held it in place. Finally, he managed to get his jaws around Carr, pulling him out and tossing his body into the air. He and his mate pulled Carr’s body in half while the vehicle was released; the male ate the upper portion of Carr’s body. The trailers, no longer supported, slipped in the mud under their own weight and fell off the cliff, dragging the remaining vehicle along. Finally, the tyrannosaurs had extinguished the danger, and they all returned home.

However, their troubles were far from over. Although their son was back in the nest, his scent was detectable from elsewhere on the island as the following day dawned. The tyrannosaurs were already on edge after the attack on their territory and their son, and they could now smell his scent mixed with those of the humans passing their nest heading westward toward the island interior. InGen’s tyrannosaurs have notoriously poor vision, so they trusted their sense of smell, leaving their son in the nest while they investigated this confusing development. Throughout the course of the day, they trekked some distance behind the large party of humans, following their son’s scent.

As night fell on Isla Sorna, the humans bedded down at a temporary encampment near the raptors’ territory. The tyrannosaurs, with their superior senses, had no trouble sneaking around the campsite and investigating. In a tent, the male found the source of his son’s smell: one of the humans’ clothing had blood on it. No doubt this was a survivor from their attack the previous night. While he investigated, the tent’s inhabitants (Dr. Harding as well as Malcolm’s daughter Kelly) desperately tried to keep silent and still. Outside, one of the humans woke up and saw him, screaming and alerting the others; panic overtook the group and the surprised male raised his head, tent catching on his snout and temporarily confounding him. His mate joined the attack, chasing most of the humans down a narrow ravine and into the raptorshunting ground while the male freed himself from the tent fabric and made a kill.

As the male fed upon casualties of the panic, he felt a small but sharp stabbing pain in his left hip. By now, the camp was mostly empty except for one man: Roland Tembo, a big-game hunter armed with an air rifle. Unbeknownst to the tyrannosaur, he was the very reason Tembo had come to Isla Sorna, a master hunter in pursuit of the ultimate game, and it was Tembo who had kidnapped the tyrannosaur’s son. Not knowing any of this, the tyrannosaur moved to attack the man, but was hit by a second tranquilizer dart. Before he could strike back, the highly concentrated carfentanil did its work, and he slipped into unconsciousness.

While he was sedated, InGen mobilized and placed him in a large cage designed for a creature his body type and size. This was probably one of the cages from Isla Sorna’s operational days, perhaps even one he had been in before. This time, it would be used for its original purpose: bringing him off the island. InGen’s CEO Peter Ludlow was on scene, having evaded both the tyrannosaur’s mate and the raptors, and ordered the father airlifted onto the cargo ship S.S. Venture for immediate transportation to San Diego, California. There, the tyrannosaur would feature as the star and opening attraction at Jurassic Park and, hopefully, save InGen from bankruptcy. He was harnessed and muzzled, with two crane-equipped bulldozers holding down his head and tail via the harness.

The two highly-concentrated doses of carfentanil had done their job too well, though. En route to San Diego, the tyrannosaur slipped into a coma and was feared near death. InGen crew on the deck of the ship attempted to save his life by administering naltrexone, but again miscalculated the dose. He woke in a drug-induced mania in the early morning of May 30, reacting violently to his surroundings and terrifying the deckhands. During this struggle, he was able to free his head from the muzzle. A crew member using a forklift to wrangle him prodded too hard and he lashed out, biting the wheel of the bulldozer attached to his head harness. The driver panicked and reversed, accidentally pulling the tyrannosaur partway out of the harness and allowing him to get free. He engaged in a frenzied attack against the crew, killing and wounding several deckhands. He also made his way to the wheelhouse, squeezing either his head or a foot through the narrow door and killing the captain, whose hand was found still clutching the wheel despite being severed from the body. He was then lured into the cargo hold, and a mortally-wounded crew member managed to shut the doors before succumbing to fatal injuries and dying. This final stage of the Venture incident occurred minutes before the ship’s arrival to the InGen waterfront complex, where the ship rammed into the dock.

This crash would initially have winded the tyrannosaur as the multi-ton vessel came to a sudden grinding halt from flight speed. As he recovered and got his bearings, the cargo hold doors began to open again. Sensing an opportunity to get free, he pushed his way out, snapping at humans as he disembarked the ship and fled the crash site. But he was no longer on Isla Sorna: he was in downtown San Diego, an environment wholly alien to him, like nothing he had ever seen, heard, or smelled. The bright lights and loud sounds disoriented him and he made his way into the suburbs.

He was severely dehydrated from his ordeal, and he sought out water. Unfortunately, the water he selected was from a backyard pool, and therefore chlorinated; it would not have satiated his thirst. He did, however, find food. A domestic dog emerged to bark at him, and after sending the canine hiding in its doghouse, he extracted the small mammal and ate it; he was witnessed by a local San Diegan boy named Benjamin and his family members. The boy photographed him, and he was aggravated by the flash. Deleted film concepts demonstrate him attacking the household and causing damage to the property in response to this irritation, but there is no evidence this actually happened.

The dog alone was such a small meal, and after so much stress and dehydration he was desperate for more meat. His hunger led him downtown, where early-morning traffic exacerbated his confused aggression. Numerous vehicular accidents resulted from his appearance, and he was seen attacking a traffic light on Cedar Street. He went on to ram a city bus, causing more injuries; he next chased down a group of pedestrians, killing and eating a man. Now having eaten enough meat to satisfy his hunger and thirst, he faced down the traffic as he tried to find his way through the grid of city streets, leading him to a Unocal 76 gas station. It was here that he finally heard a noise that was familiar: the sound of his son. It was a faint groan, barely audible over the alien noises, but his acute hearing picked it up. Then he saw his son, in the back of a vehicle with Drs. Harding and Malcolm once more. Recognizing these humans from two days ago and none to happy to see them with his son a second time, he gave chase as they fled back toward the sea.

No longer was the otherworldly environment of the city his greatest concern. His son was in need of protection, and that was now the only certainty he had left. He nearly caught them when he was cut off by a fleet of San Diego Police Department vehicles and a single Animal Control van; these law enforcement officials almost immediately reversed direction and fled in terror upon seeing what they had been called to deal with, but the distraction had allowed the car with his son to gain some distance. He resumed pursuit with renewed vigor, being led back around toward the docks from which he had come. The chase went through a warehouse, and he briefly lost sight of his targets; he used his sense of smell and the sound of his son’s wailing to track them.

The chase led, inevitably, back into the belly of the ship where he had been imprisoned. His son was here, but so was Ludlow, the leader of the InGen team. The tyrannosaur had not actually met this man in person, having been unconscious the last time they were together, but this human was now trying to coax the tyrannosaur’s son out of hiding. Only the sight of his father drew out the son, who dodged Ludlow to find the safety of his parent. Having been wholly concentrated on the young tyrannosaur, Ludlow had not seen or heard the adult approaching and was startled. He attempted to flee out of the cargo hold, but the tyrannosaur father did not allow him to get away, grabbing him by the legs and breaking the left one. Incapable of walking, Ludlow was rendered vulnerable and defenseless. Now that the man was no longer a threat, the tyrannosaur offered his son a chance to practice hunting. Though his son had never killed his own prey, the father was able to encourage him enough to give him the confidence to leap upon Ludlow and sink his teeth in. The father watched, as proud as any tyrannosaur parent could be, as his son made his first-ever kill. No longer an infant, his son had grown into a hunter, and would one day make an apex predator yet.

Overhead, an airborne threat was approaching: a helicopter dispatched by the San Diego SWAT, with orders from Ludlow to fatally shoot him and take his son. He did not know this, but tried to push his way out of the cargo hold as the doors began closing, wanting to engage any new danger. While he fought against the doors, he was hit in the neck by a tranquilizer dart, and by now he knew what that meant. This time, the dart was shot by Dr. Harding, and she had a better understanding of what dosage was proper for an animal with his metabolism; he was lulled into a peaceful doze, and the doors closed before the SWAT helicopter could shoot. His son by his side, he slept as the ship began moving again, this time heading back southwest.

It was almost noon when the ship’s crew released him, a flotilla of U.S. military vessels ensuring that there was no interference and the release went smoothly. He and his son were back at Isla Sorna, home once more. They left the humans behind, traveling across the familiar terrain for the nest. He was reunited with his mate, and the family was together again. Now, his son was bolder, more confident, and ready to venture forth from the nesting site. No more would he need to eat from the stockpiled carcasses, waiting for his parents to return from hunts: now he was able to join them. The father oversaw his son’s first forays into the wild, ever the watchful protector as his son learned the ways of the world he was one day set to inherit. All was well on Isla Sorna, for the time.

The fall of Isla Sorna

Nothing is currently known about the male’s life after the events of 1997, but Isla Sorna’s fate had unknowingly been sealed by the San Diego incident. The public now knew about the dinosaurs, and there was no going back. InGen’s founder, John Hammond, did everything he could to protect Isla Sorna and its de-extinct inhabitants from being exploited, but even the best of government protections were imperfect. InGen itself, in defiance of Hammond’s wishes and international law, returned to Isla Sorna in late 1998 to resume research in secret. Along with InGen came spies from its rival company Biosyn, seeking to piggyback off of InGen research for their own gain. Hammond’s death at the end of 1997 had weakened the dinosaurs’ protections, as their strongest advocate was gone.

Between late 1998 and mid-1999, numerous new dinosaurs were bred in the laboratory and abandoned into the wild when InGen feared the government might discover their criminal activity. These new dinosaurs included abundant prey animals, but also the enormous predator Spinosaurus which claimed a vast section of the central island as its territory once it was grown. This disrupted the animals’ territorial boundaries, which had been maintained for many years. The burgeoning prey population at first benefited the carnivores, but before long, resources ran scarce and the prey began to die out. By 2004, the island’s food web was in a state of disastrous trophic cascade.

What happened to Isla Sorna after this is a closely-guarded secret. InGen had been bought out by Masrani Global Corporation in recent years and was now building a theme park on nearby Isla Nublar, and when scientists monitoring Isla Sorna reported the ecological crisis, Masrani Global began to intervene. InGen Security, under the direction of Vic Hoskins, began a capture operation on Isla Sorna in 2004 going into 2005. According to official records, all of Isla Sorna’s de-extinct inhabitants were captured and transported by boat across the ocean to Isla Nublar, leaving the island completely depopulated and abandoned. However, evidence has mounted over the years that this was not true, and that not only did animals remain on Isla Sorna, but that the island was being used for some purpose by InGen.

Whatever was going on there, InGen suffered a major disaster in 2015 which halted most of its operations. Isla Sorna was again vulnerable to exploitative forces coming from outside, and come they did. After 2015, Biosyn once again invaded the island, capturing various animals for transportation to Biosyn Valley in Italy. This tyrannosaur and his mate were among the animals captured, possibly in 2017 when a major operation took place on the island. For the last time, they left Isla Sorna and were brought into the outside world.

Life in Biosyn Valley

In the Biosyn Genetics Sanctuary, the tyrannosaurs worked at establishing a new territory among the other captured animals. They were outfitted with neural implants, which sometimes delivered signals to alter their behavior whenever Biosyn employees needed to herd them somewhere. As time went on, new animals were delivered, some familiar and some not; eventually these were supplemented by entirely new creatures cloned by Biosyn.

For the most part their lives in Biosyn Valley were idyllic at first. The company ensured that the sanctuary was kept stocked with herds of Central European red deer for the carnivores to eat, so they never went hungry, and their territory included sources of clean, fresh mountain water and dense forests to hide in. Biosyn benefited from the dinosaurs by using them for biomedical research, discovering biopharmaceutical products that held the potential to treat a range of health conditions in humans. However, the tyrannosaurs’ lives were disrupted sometime in the early 2020s by a new apex predator, a gigantic theropod called Giganotosaurus. Just one was introduced to the valley, but he bullied the tyrannosaurs away from food and other resources; this forced them to keep to the northeastern end of the valley away from him.

In the spring of 2022, the tyrannosaurs’ neural implants were activated one night to herd them into Biosyn’s emergency containment area beneath their research facility. The valley had been accidentally lit on fire during an effort by Biosyn’s CEO, Lewis Dodgson, to cover up his involvement in a worldwide agricultural disaster. While they hunkered in emergency containment, their apex predator problem was surprisingly taken care of above: the Giganotosaurus was one of the last dinosaurs to approach containment, and along with him was a third tyrannosaur, this one the mated pair’s long-lost kin from Isla Nublar. She had been introduced to the valley just that morning and had come in from the southwestern region. The two animals fought, and thanks to the timely intervention of an aggressive blind Therizinosaurus, the bullying Giganotosaurus was killed.

When the morning came, the valley was in shambles, but enough had survived to allow the dinosaurs to return. They reemerged from containment and searched through what remained of their home. The mated tyrannosaur pair sought out the river near Biosyn headquarters, meeting their elder relative there. These three, the oldest Tyrannosaurus rex alive on Earth, reunited for the first time in thirty-three years.

Currently, Biosyn Valley is under United Nations supervision and serves as a sanctuary for de-extinct animals that cannot integrate into the modern world’s natural ecosystems. The three tyrannosaurs are believed to be near the end of their lifespan and will inhabit the sanctuary for the remainder of their days.

Skills
Physical strength and durability

This tyrannosaur buck grew to an impressive size and weight, reaching forty feet from snout to tail-tip (in comparison to the largest known tyrannosaur, who is slightly longer than 44 feet). He had the power to match, capable of a sustained running speed of around twenty-five miles per hour and with jaws powerful enough to rend flesh and crush bone. His ancestors were apex predators dominating the North American food web in their time and he lived up to their reputation in the modern age, being one of Isla Sorna’s most powerful creatures.

He suffered from a genetic lysine deficiency, which he medicated (probably unknowingly) using his diet. By eating herbivores that had gorged on lysine-rich plants, he could treat his deficiency and retain his health.

Isla Sorna became increasingly cramped after InGen abandoned it, with the populations of both predators and prey becoming uncomfortably dense. He likely defended his family against competing carnivores and aggressive herbivores, and he also fought off rival males when courting his mate; he retained scarring on his face from these intraspecific conflicts. A strong fighter, his later life is poorly known but we can safely assume he remained alive on Isla Sorna through the island’s tumultuous years and all the way to the bitter end. Eventually, he was relocated in his old age to Biosyn Valley, where he currently lives in comfortable retirement.

Hunting

Surviving on Isla Sorna meant dominating resources, and for an apex predator this meant tracking down and killing prey. This tyrannosaur was clearly a capable hunter, traveling far and wide across the island in search of food; his prey items included at least Edmontosaurus, Parasaurolophus, and Pachycephalosaurus, but likely other species too. A crunching bite from his jaws would kill most victims instantly, and if the prey escaped, the serrations on his teeth would cause bleeding and sepsis. He could then track down and finish off his prey. In an impressive feat of strength, he (probably with help from his mate) dragged even the largest of these carcasses back to his family’s nest where their son could have his pick of his favorite food.

To track down prey, he utilized all of his abilities, including sight, sound, and smell. He knew Isla Sorna’s layout very well from all his years patrolling it, and this helped him know where prey was likely to be. A game trail in the northeast was one of his usual hunting spots, since it had open spaces lined with thick coniferous forest that provided him with ideal settings to ambush unsuspecting dinosaurs. With his imposing size and strength, he could certainly steal carrion from other carnivores if he was unable to find live prey.

Rearing offspring

As of 1997, this tyrannosaur and his mate had a single surviving descendant and they were ferociously protective of him. No threat to their son’s safety was enough to make him back down; he would sooner die than allow his child to become something’s prey. If a predator or rival attacked, he would track that creature down and kill it at any cost. It was not just his son’s safety that concerned him, but his happiness as well. He ensured that his son would always have food, stockpiling it near the nest. Should lean times hit the island, they would be prepared. It also ensured that his son could choose whatever kind of meat he favored. The nest itself was built so that he could hunt downwind of it, meaning that he would pick up the scent of an invader before said invader knew he was coming.

Protecting his son against humans was a challenge and it led him to make erratic decisions out of confusion. He altered the borders of their territory, defending a large area to the north rather than just the inland region where the nest was located, when his son was moved out of the nest. Tracking and eliminating the humans became his primary goal, and when he smelled his son’s scent on them, he followed them instead of staying near the nest. This was despite the fact that his son was already home; he trusted his sense of smell more than his vision and investigated the humans. Leaving his son unattended was a mistake, since the young male was captured again while his parents were away. However, the father was able to find him again in a totally alien environment, tracking him through the confusing city and rescuing him from his kidnapper. At that point, he knew it was time for his son to learn to defend himself and hunt his own prey: he wounded the kidnapper, using that man as an opportunity to teach his son. With encouragement, his son made his first successful kill.

From then on, the juvenile began accompanying his parents into the wild. His father had successfully raised a future apex predator. This came just in time, as Isla Sorna was about to enter its most chaotic stage of history. Raising a son so well is especially impressive when one considers the fact that this tyrannosaur male was a first-generation clone, having had no parents of his own species. He had been raised by humans, but figured out how to raise his own child through conscientiously paying attention to his son’s needs.

Senses

As mentioned above, InGen tyrannosaurs have difficulty seeing stationary objects against a stationary background; movement provides the contrast they need to distinguish objects. This tyrannosaur was seen roaring at stationary targets, which could startle them into movement. When a target suddenly held still, he could recall where he last saw it and assume it was still there. This allowed him to intimidate humans who had taken his son and were hiding inside a vehicle, which masked their scent and muffled their sounds, even when they were standing still.

Aside from vision, his senses were extremely acute, including hearing in the low-frequency range and an ability to smell up to ten miles away. Even faint sounds and scents did not escape his notice; he was well-attuned to anything indicating his son, for example, and could pick out his distress calls and the smell of his blood amidst all the natural phenomena of Isla Sorna even from far away.

Views
Perception of humans

Despite being incapable of knowing a human’s intentions just by looking, he is capable of recognizing individual humans and telling them apart from one another. This was demonstrated in 1997, when he witnessed Drs. Ian Malcolm and Sarah Harding with his son on two separate occasions. His reaction the second time was suggested by both scientists to indicate that he did, in fact, recognize them and was none to happy to see them interfere with his family again.

When the scientists were with his son, they were actually attempting to help; on the first occasion they were mending his son’s broken leg, while the second time they were attempting to bring both tyrannosaurs to a boat that would transport them home. However, the buck cannot tell the difference between this and simple kidnapping. Even though he has no way of gauging the morality of a given human, he can determine whether a human is a threat or not. While in San Diego, he was irritated by a boy’s camera flash but did not attack the household (although he did eat a domestic dog), but he later did prey upon a pedestrian and attacked a bus. He also recognized San Diego Police Department vehicles as enemies and roared to intimidate them into fleeing.

His actions suggest he knows enough about human behavior to tell the difference between harmless humans, potential threats, and potential prey. He may also attack a threat and then eat it, making efficient use of his recently-deceased foes.

Relationships
Family

During his early adulthood, this tyrannosaur succeeded at impressing a female who became his mate. There were only six tyrannosaurs living on Isla Sorna at the time, and all of them had known one another since they were young. These two made a good team, cooperating efficiently to hunt, build nests, and defend their territory. They cared for one another deeply, as much as two Tyrannosaurus could.

By 1997, they had a single offspring, a son. It is not known if they had laid other eggs; whatever the case, they had only the one child, and they protected him fiercely. The father’s primary job was to hunt for him, while his mate protected the nest. He traveled miles across Isla Sorna in search of the best meat for his son; he ensured that the nest was always well-stocked with food so that his son would never run out. One day, he would teach his son to hunt for his own food, once he was old enough to leave the nest.

That day came unexpectedly in May of 1997, when humans returned to Isla Sorna after having vanished a couple years ago. His son was taken, and he used his senses of smell and hearing to track him across the island. Although he was able to get his son back, the humans persisted, and eventually both father and son were taken from Isla Sorna altogether. They were brought to the strange world of the American mainland. After some struggle, they were reunited, and the father rescued his son a final time from human clutches. This time, he maimed the kidnapper rather than killing him, and used this man as a teaching opportunity; he encouraged his son to make the kill himself. Success was had, and his son became a hunter. From then on, his son grew more confident and capable, joining his parents on forays out of the nest and seeing the outside world of Isla Sorna.

It is not known if this male had any other offspring. Tyrannosaurs are believed to be monogamous for life, so he and his mate will stick together for the remainder of their years. Details about their lives after 1997 are poorly recorded, so it is unknown if they have any living descendants anywhere in the world.

Other tyrannosaurs

This male was among seven tyrannosaurs originally bred by InGen on Isla Sorna, including the female that would eventually become his mate. The first tyrannosaur hatched in 1988, and was transported away from Isla Sorna for good in 1989; the rest remained there, though the dates at which they hatched are undisclosed. All of them lived in a paddock area together and no major conflicts are known.

When they entered adolescence, their relationships became more complicated. With the advent of maturity came the drive to mate, and with a total population of only six animals, competition would have been intense (especially if there was an uneven split of males and females). His facial scars were, according to Universal Studios design team members, the result of intraspecific combat with other males for mating rights. Once he had a mate, he and she moved away from the central region of the island to make a nest in a place where few other carnivores lived. This would keep their young safe.

From then on, they avoided the territories of the other tyrannosaurs until their son was old enough to venture out of the nest. The tyrannosaur population declined in the early 2000s, and in 2017, this male is believed to have been taken away from Isla Sorna along with his mate. They now reside in Biosyn Valley along with the eldest tyrannosaur they were originally raised alongside, reunited after thirty-three years.

Other animals

An apex predator, this tyrannosaur had the selection of any food on Isla Sorna he wanted after his release into the wild in the mid-1990s. Most of his prey included nutritious hadrosaurs, including Parasaurolophus and the much rarer Edmontosaurus, but he also fed upon Pachycephalosaurus and probably Gallimimus, since these were also common in his hunting grounds. The island’s sauropods, Mamenchisaurus and Brachiosaurus, were the only animals too large for him to bring down; juveniles were potential prey, and any sauropods that died would have provided ample food for him and his entire family.

Not all of the dinosaurs were easy prey, as some were quite well-armed. His hunting ground encompassed areas used by Stegosaurus and Triceratops, whose natural armaments would have made them difficult to kill without sustaining injuries. There were also carnivorous dinosaurs, most of which lived farther inland. The toughest competitor was most likely Carnotaurus, a fleet-of-foot and aggressive predator smaller but faster than Tyrannosaurus. Another large carnivore was the Baryonyx, though it preferred fish. While not a dinosaur, the waterways of the island also drew another fish-eater, the pterosaur Pteranodon; this was a fairly fragile creature compared to a tyrannosaur, but its ability to fly would have made it difficult to catch. The central island’s grassland was dominated by a pride of about ten Velociraptors, intelligent and swift hunters. One raptor alone would have made a meal for a determined tyrannosaur, but many of them working as a unit could have caused a tyrannosaur serious harm, so they mutually avoided each other. Another of the smaller carnivores was the nomadic Dilophosaurus, a venomous but reclusive creature. The smallest dinosaurs on the island were the scavenger Compsognathus and the herbivore Microceratus, which were mostly too small for the tyrannosaurs to pay any notice.

Nesting away from the central island meant that the other carnivores gave this tyrannosaur’s family little trouble, so their main interactions were with the herbivores they hunted. The only carnivores to venture so far from the island interior on a regular basis were the flocks of little Compsognathus which traveled about seeking carrion and other detritus to eat, but even they avoided the tyrannosaur nest. There is not much evidence of other carnivores intruding into the northwest where the tyrannosaur family hunted, so they likely had this space to themselves.

This changed in the late 1990s, when illegal InGen activity on the island introduced a variety of new creatures. Along with the burgeoning populations of animals that already lived there, four new species appeared. The most numerous by far was Corythosaurus, a herbivore similar to Parasaurolophus and Edmontosaurus, which made easy enough prey. Its herds reached gigantic sizes as it became one of the island’s most common species. Another herbivore was less of a potential target: the Ankylosaurus, a far more uncommon dinosaur with heavy armor and a bone-shattering tail. The tyrannosaurs probably avoided these. Two water-loving carnivores also appeared on the island, including the relatively docile Ceratosaurus and the decidedly more aggressive Spinosaurus. The latter was a highly territorial dinosaur which claimed a huge swath of inner Isla Sorna as its own, forcing the other carnivores of the island interior to shuffle their territories around and redraw boundaries. Although there was only one Spinosaurus known, it had a major effect on the island’s ecology, and was known to kill competing tyrannosaurs.

Eventually, Isla Sorna’s population became too large for such a small island to support, and the herbivores ran out of food. They were forced to compete intensely for resources, and those that could not make the cut died out. At first, the carnivores could have gorged themselves on the carnage, but space was at a premium, and soon enough the carcasses ran out too. All of the larger species quickly found themselves facing potential extinction. Human intervention saved the ecosystem, but its state was permanently changed.

In 2017, the tyrannosaurs and other Isla Sorna animals were moved off the island by Biosyn agents, and were transported to the Biosyn Genetics Sanctuary in the Dolomite Mountains. There, they gradually were joined by animals not just from Isla Sorna, but from Isla Nublar too, and eventually by new creatures bred by parties outside InGen altogether. Some of these were bred by Biosyn, including an aggressive Giganotosaurus which bullied the tyrannosaurs. The new apex predator was brought down in 2022, with the three aging tyrannosaurs of Biosyn Valley dominating the food web once again.

InGen staff

Like all the dinosaurs of his generation, this male was created at the laboratory on Isla Sorna by a team of genetic biologists working for International Genetic Technologies under the direction of Dr. Henry Wu. He may have had some work put in from Dr. Laura Sorkin, another high-ranking geneticist at InGen (though her slower, methodical techniques led to Dr. Wu being favored over her). While in the paddock on Isla Sorna, he would have been supervised by the game warden Robert Muldoon and probably tended to by veterinarian Dr. Gerry Harding. Both of them would have been aided by teams of trained professionals, both animal handlers and veterinarians. Since he was a member of such a popular and impressive species, it is quite certain that InGen’s CEO Dr. John Hammond saw him at some point, and probably Hammond’s silent business partner Sir Benjamin Lockwood. He was contained, fed, and medicated while InGen staff researched him. While he was never transported to Isla Nublar for use in Jurassic Park, his biology did help inform InGen on the construction of a proper tyrannosaur exhibit. It would still be many years before tyrannosaur biology was understood enough to do this effectively, though.

In the summer of 1993, activity on Isla Sorna began to decrease. Many staff members left the island altogether, and the dinosaurs began to assume a more naturalistic lifestyle. In 1995, humans vanished from the island completely just before a massive hurricane struck the archipelago. This began a period of two years in which virtually no humans at all visited the island; the only possible exceptions are Costa Rican fishermen who are rumored to have vanished near the Muertes Archipelago prior to 1997.

The first trace the buck had of humans returning to the island was probably by scent. His nest was invaded, and when he arrived he found his son missing. Although the culprits were the big-game hunter Roland Tembo and his partner Ajay Sidhu, the male was misled to believe a second group of humans were instead responsible. Tembo had been hired by InGen’s new CEO, Peter Ludlow (who replaced Hammond), to lead a team to track down and capture dinosaurs for a smaller and more accessible version of Jurassic Park on the mainland. His son had not been targeted as a Park animal but rather as bait: his distress cries were meant to lure his parents out, and Tembo intended to shoot the father as a trophy.

Roughly a day after this first incident, the smell of his son’s blood led him back to the humans. By this time, those he had attacked yesterday had now joined up with the real kidnappers in a joint effort to escape the island, and so by sheer coincidence, the tyrannosaurs now targeted the true culprits. The father killed at least one hunter during this attack, but was tranquilized by Tembo (whose bullets had been stolen, rendering his elephant gun useless). Falling into unconsciousness, he was loaded into a cage for transport, at which time Ludlow finally encountered him up close and in person.

During transit from Isla Sorna to the mainland by means of the S.S. Venture, the heavy dose of tranquilizers he was on put him into a coma. InGen deckhands panicked, trying to medicate him out of the coma, but instead overdosed him. He was put into a manic state. Due to mistakes made during the chaos, he was able to attack deckhands and the ship’s captain; he was finally shut into the cargo hold by a mortally-wounded crew member. By this time, it was too late for the crew to regain control after the captain’s death and the Venture collided with the dock in San Diego. Ludlow directed InGen security guards to investigate the ship, and he was released, this time into the city.

Ludlow was initially shell-shocked by this catastrophe, but regained his composure and tried to salvage the situation. He ordered the San Diego Police Department to shoot the buck, leaving only the juvenile alive. Meanwhile, the juvenile had been taken out from the Park and was being used to lure the buck to the Venture‘s cargo hold once more; Ludlow sought to stop this, but while he was in the process of capturing the juvenile, he was cornered by the adult. His leg was broken by the protective father, who then used the wounded executive as a means to teach his son how to hunt. Ludlow’s death was a moment of great pride for this tyrannosaur parent, as he watched his son use his own teeth and talons to end the man’s life.

InGen was thrown into chaos because of this incident, and this came after four years of financial turmoil. Returning the tyrannosaurs safely to Isla Sorna was the least they could do now; the company faced bankruptcy afterward, and only by being bought out by Masrani Global Corporation did it avoid shuttering completely. This company was owned by Simon Masrani, a close friend of Hammond’s. Before he died, Hammond had entrusted Masrani with the company’s future and the dinosaurs’ well-being. Working with the U.S. government, Hammond had tried to ensure legal protection for the dinosaurs, but Masrani was the only person he trusted to be directly involved.

Unfortunately, not everyone at InGen had the dinosaurs’ well-being in mind, and certain parties within the company acted illegally to continue research on Isla Sorna in violation of Hammond’s wishes and international law. It is unknown if Simon Masrnai knew about this, but Dr. Wu was probably involved. This activity upset the delicate balance of Isla Sorna, putting the dinosaurs in peril but giving Masrani Global an excuse to publicly intervene once the island’s ecosystem was in total disarray. InGen Security, now under the direction of Vic Hoskins, rounded up some of the surviving dinosaurs and moved them to Isla Nublar. This tyrannosaur, however, was not among them, and instead remained hidden away on Isla Sorna until 2017.

Gatherer team

It was not John Hammond’s original plan to have the Gatherers, as his team was called, encounter tyrannosaurs at all. The idea was for the Gatherers to remain on the outer rim of the island away from the carnivores’ hunting and nesting grounds. Hammond had mapped dinosaur territories by satellite to ensure this was successful. However, when InGen’s Harvester operation arrived sooner than expected, the tyrannosaurs became involved.

Along with freeing the captured dinosaurs, environmental activist and video documentarian Nick Van Owen rescued the kidnapped baby tyrannosaur; he and paleobiologist Dr. Sarah Harding brought the juvenile to their camp where they mended his broken leg. This drew the ire of his parents, who did not understand that their son was being helped. Tracking his scent and listening to his distress calls, the juvenile’s father and mother located him at the Gatherer camp and threatened the humans. By now, the group within the camp trailers included mathematician Dr. Ian Malcolm, who had prior experience with Tyrannosaurus rex. The father was the first to locate the humans and his son inside the trailer, peering into it and using his roars to intimidate the humans. With his persuasive argument, his son was released, leg in a cast but otherwise unharmed. After bringing his son to the safety of the treeline, both adults rammed the trailers, pushing the rear car over the cliffs and leaving it dangling hundreds of feet above the rocky coast. Minutes later, another car arrived to aid the humans in the trailer; equipment specialist Eddie Carr was at the wheel. The tyrannosaurs were drawn back to the campsite by this commotion. The male managed to pull Carr out of his vehicle, and between him and his mate, the man was killed. Carr’s upper half was eaten by the male.

It seemed as though the conflict was over, but his son’s scent still lingered outside of the nest, and it mingled with the smell of humans. This confused the male and his mate, and both of them trusted their sense of smell enough to go and investigate. They followed the humans into the island interior, and by nightfall the humans stopped moving; they had set up camp once again. The smell of his son came from a tent, where he encountered Dr. Harding and Malcolm’s daughter Kelly; they remained still and silent to avoid his attention. Ultimately he was distracted from them when the other humans saw him and panicked; he was separated from the Gatherers for a time.

He did not encounter them again until he had been brought against his will to San Diego. Alone, separated from his family, and confused, he had caused havoc in the city streets until he heard an impossibly unlikely sound: his son, somehow in this place too. Once again, his son was in the hands of Drs. Harding and Malcolm, who fled with the father in pursuit until they reached the S.S. Venture and released the juvenile into the cargo hold. The father followed, reuniting with his son. While a San Diego SWAT helicopter carried a sniper to the ship with orders to kill the buck, Dr. Harding tranquilized him while Dr. Malcolm closed the cargo hold doors, and together they restrained him inside the hold before the sniper could lock on target and shoot. Although he perceived them as his enemies, Drs. Malcolm and Harding were responsible for saving his life and returning him home to his mate with his son alongside him.

General public

This male tyrannosaur is, perhaps, the most significant dinosaur in the history of de-extinction because of the role he played in revealing it to the public. Although his involvement with Jurassic Park: San Diego was impromptu, it had a lasting effect when he was accidentally released from captivity into the city. Aside from people at the InGen press conference, the first civilians to see him were a local boy named Benjamin and his parents; the tyrannosaur caused property damage, killed and ate the family dog, and frightened the adults. Meanwhile, the young Benjamin photographed the dinosaur, making him the first-known person not affiliated with InGen to record photographic evidence of de-extinct organisms.

During his confused journey through the city, the tyrannosaur caused mass panic among early-morning commuters and pedestrians, but is only confirmed to have killed one person directly (a man who he fed upon). He also rammed a bus at one point, injuring the driver and several passengers, but no deaths are confirmed. Various San Diegans injured one another in vehicular accidents and stampedes. Authorities were eventually involved; the San Diego Police Department and San Diego Animal Control were dispatched to hunt him down, while San Diego Fire and Rescue responded to emergencies caused by car accidents and infrastructure damage. He was eventually tracked by the San Diego SWAT back to the S.S. Venture and was only spared from being shot to death by the actions of Drs. Malcolm and Harding. From here, he was returned home along with his son.

Although there is no evidence he encountered civilians again, the influence he had was lasting. This was the first dinosaur many people saw, and was cited by several influential individuals (such as Eric Kirby and Claire Dearing) as the reason they became interested in dinosaurs. While many people were shocked and horrified at InGen’s accomplishments, far more were amazed and enthralled. This even included some eyewitnesses such as SDFR member Kazden L., who would go on to become a de-extinct animal rights supporter later in his life. Isla Sorna later experienced illegal tourism and poaching, both negative side effects of the amazement people had at these creatures. Surely many of the trespassers were drawn to the island in the hopes of seeing this legendary buck.

The San Diego incident has formed the basis for the de-extinct animal rights argument. Damages and casualties caused by the incident have been cited as evidence by both moderate and extreme opponents (with the lobbyist group Extinction Now! and the U.S. President as of 2018 being on the far-right side of this spectrum) as evidence that humans and de-extinct animals should not be permitted to coexist. Supporters of de-extinct animal rights, ranging from civilians to organizations such as the Dinosaur Protection Group and even some minor government offices, have pointed out that the tyrannosaur attack was directly caused by human interference and exploitation. The fact that the tyrannosaur had offspring to protect has helped the supporting side of this argument, since many people can empathize with the need to protect one’s child at any cost.

There is also the scientific zeitgeist to consider. Since the San Diego incident brought de-extinction into the spotlight, the focus in paleontology has inexorably shifted away from the traditional research done using fossilized remains and toward using genetic science and ancient DNA. This has led to many people using the term “neopaleontology” to refer to this dramatically changed field. More traditional paleontologists have seen their careers altered, and in some cases nearly brought to an end; this includes the famous Dr. Alan Grant, who witnessed the incident on Isla Nublar in 1993. Contrary to common belief, Dr. Grant was not in San Diego in 1997 and did not witness that incident. Grant’s relationship with de-extinction is extremely complicated, and his feelings about this animal in particular must be quite mixed.

In the Biosyn Genetics Sanctuary, the tyrannosaurs both are currently monitored by the United Nations.

Biosyn Staff

In 2017, a major operation at Isla Sorna saw Biosyn Genetics operatives land there using a vessel disguised as a tourist ship and capture a number of animals. This tyrannosaur was among the creatures taken away from the island, and he was brought across the world to Biosyn Valley and introduced there along with the other Isla Sorna animals. This was done under the direction of Biosyn’s CEO Lewis Dodgson, who sought to study the animals’ biopharmaceutical applications.

For the most part the tyrannosaurs were treated well in the Biosyn Genetics Sanctuary. Their health was paramount to Biosyn’s objectives, so they were constantly monitored from the series of observation posts. To direct them around the valley if they needed to be moved, all the animals were outfitted with implants that could stimulate their nervous systems and command them to move. Generally, the dinosaurs were allowed to roam as they pleased, and were only controlled when necessary.

Dodgson’s practices in stocking the valley were not always well-thought-out. Sometime between 2018 and 2022, his scientists bred a Giganotosaurus, which grew large enough to compete with the tyrannosaurs and bully them. After the events of 2022, in which communications administrator Ramsay Cole acted as a whistleblower on Biosyn’s Hexapod Allies program, the United Nations began to intercede in Biosyn Valley. With Dodgson no longer in charge and higher authorities overseeing developments there, the tyrannosaurs will presumably be well cared for the remainder of their lives.

Portrayal

The male tyrannosaur (referred to as “buck” or “bull” both in production and the script) is portrayed through a combination of animatronics and computer-generated imagery. He is loosely based on the male tyrannosaur in Michael Crichton‘s novel, though his role is quite different; the entire San Diego sequence was added for the film and is an homage to classic lost-world stories such as King Kong and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World.

New footage of the male tyrannosaur was created based on the San Diego sequence and used in the 2018 viral marketing for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, the first time this tyrannosaur has directly appeared in film-canon material since the 1997 film.

He reappears in 2022’s Jurassic World: Dominion, making a brief cameo in the closing sequence. For this film, his CGI model was simply a slight rework of the main tyrannosaur.