Summary

• Jurassic Park had to cut some dinosaurs from the final movie due to budget constraints, leaving some potential fan-favorites on the cutting room floor.
• The deleted dinosaurs, like Hadrosaurus and Euoplocephalus, were planned for exciting scenes that never made it to the big screen.
• Despite not appearing in the movies, there is hope that modern technology may bring these cut dinosaurs from the Jurassic era to life in future films.

Jurassic Park and Jurassic World movies released since then have gone some way to exploring some of these cut dinosaurs, there are some beasts that never made it to the big screen.

As one of the highest-grossing movie franchises ever, Jurassic Park had a decent budget behind all of its special effects, which helped create the wide range of creatures seen in the park. However, the budget could only stretch so far, leading to the discontinuation of some of its planned scenes involving more expensive dinosaurs. With contemporary technology offering a more comprehensive suite of solutions, there is hope that never-before-seen relics from the Jurassic era may still be brought to life.

7 Hypsilophodon

A Small Ornithopod

Hypsilophodon were tiny compared to most dinosaurs, and they were removed from Jurassic Park after initially being included. Hypsilophodon are part of the genus, hypsilophodontidae, which is actually mentioned in Jurassic Park's Hypsilophodont Highlands in the novel. They lived in the early Cretaceous period in England, measuring a miniature 1.8 meters.

Jurassic World 4 is scheduled for release in summer 2025.

Hypsilophodon was in the script for Jurassic Park, slated to appear in a river raft sequence pulled from the Jurassic Park novel. This scene was cut, leaving hypsilophodon out of the original movie. Grant, Lex, and Tim went downriver on a raft in the novel in this part of the story, ending up on a tour past numerous dinosaurs. This small dinosaur did not appear in any of the Jurassic Park sequels or Jurassic World movies, despite the rumors that the raft scene had already been filmed.

6 Hadrosaurus

A Large Ornithopod

This big, two-legged herbivore would have lived about 85.8 million years ago, but sadly its Hollywood fame never transpired after it was cut from Jurassic Park. As part of the hadrosaurid genus, hadrosaurus would have measured up to 8 meters, but its head shape was uncertain, as a hadrosaurus skull has never been verified. This beast was planned for inclusion in a scene that never made it to the movie.

Jurassic Park is based on Michael Crichton's 1990 novel of the same name.

The cut hadrosaurus scene involved a T-rex chasing a stampeding herd, and would have ended with the tyrannosaurus catching and eating a hadrosaurus. Destined not to be one of the dinosaurs in the original Jurassic Park trilogy, hadrosaurus was swapped out for a gallimimus. This dinosaur was faster and allowed for better pacing and historical accuracy. Despite never appearing in live-action, hadrosaurus was seen on the Holoscape screen in the Innovation Center in the Jurassic World movie.

5 Euoplocephalus

A Type Of Ankylosaurid

This large, lumbering dinosaur was going to appear in Jurassic Park but in the end, it was decided that this dinosaur would only be included as one of the park's suggestions for future creations. Despite being missing from the movies, euoplocephalus was one of the dinosaurs in the original novel that the movie is based on. This heavy dinosaur also appeared in the games Jurassic World: The Game, Jurassic Park Builder, Jurassic World: Alive, and Jurassic World: Evolution.

Euoplocephalus would swing its club-like tail at predators that tried to attack it and may have tucked its legs underneath its armor at the same time.

In Jurassic Park, euoplocephalus was in the works for a future debut. The beast, which specialized in defense, was being produced at genome-level, with 9% of its genome complete. The implication was that euoplocephalus was a planned attraction. This dinosaur would have been an incredible contribution to the movies, with armor across its upper body, head, and eyelids that protected it from predators. Euoplocephalus would swing its club-like tail at predators that tried to attack it and may have tucked its legs underneath its armor at the same time.

4 Cearadactylus

A Genus Of Large Pterosaur

Despite its absence from any of the Jurassic Park or Jurassic World movies, the cearadactylus can be found in the Jurassic World Evolution 2 game. The cearadactylus was the only winged dinosaur to appear in Crichton's Jurassic Park novel, but its scene was cut from the movie due to budgetary restrictions. This territorial genus of the pterosaur lived in the early Cretaceous Santana Formation in Brazil, and would have been an intriguing addition to the movies.

With a skull that could extend up to just over half a meter, these were formidable creatures if provoked, and prone to diving onto invaders of their territory. The cearadactylus appeared in an early draft of a T-rex chase, attacking people who were running through their compound. This sequence was popular with the team behind the movie, so a similar scene was included later in the Jurassic Park timeline, in Jurassic Park III. However, this scene involved pteradons, instead of cearadactylus.

3 Maiasaura

A Duck-billed Dinosaur

Dinosaurs with large bills, these beasts were planned for Jurassic Park, but ended up being cut because of budgetary restraints. Fossils show that this herbivore cared for its young, but its only protection was its long, muscular tail and the safety of the herd. The maiasaura were being scripted for The Lost World: Jurassic Park, included in scene 33. However, Universal Pictures decided against this and instead focused on the parasaurolophus.

Parasaurolophus had some crossover characteristics with maiasaura, and The Lost World: Jurassic Park chose to explore these characteristics without including the maiasaura. This dinosaur was again planned for Jurassic Park III, then cut. The dinosaur, which is thought to have lived 75 million years ago in North America, could always appear in the Jurassic World 4 movie.

2 Deinonychus

An Early Raptor

This aggressive carnivore was supposed to appear in Jurassic Park, and its involvement in the franchise got as far as concept art. However, deinonychus was later replaced with the more commercial velociraptor. With a slightly bigger name and more global recognition, Universal Pictures opted to put their time and money into a predatory dinosaur more likely to inspire conversation with its menacing name.

Although not one of the Jurassic Park book features cut from the movies, Michael Crichton did draw heavily on the history of the deinonychus to inform his novel. Crichton based his velociraptor on deinonychus, even going so far as to reach out to the discoverer of deinonychus to align on his literary representation. There was a near-miss in of including deinonychus in the franchise's on-screen efforts again when it was planned for Jurassic World: Dominion, then replaced by atrociraptor.

1 Lambeosaurus

A Type Of Hadrosaur

There is concept art of the lambeosaurus available, making its materialization tantalisingly close, but not close enough to include in any of the Jurassic Park movies. This magnificent herbivore had two head crests and reached up to 14 meters in length, making it an appealing choice for inclusion in the Jurassic Park movies. It's possible that this beast would have been among the herbivores seen in the movie.

However, Jurassic Park eventually decided not to include lambeosaurus in its chosen array of dinosaurs. Lambeosaurus did not subsequently appear in 1997's The Lost World: Jurassic Park, 2001's Jurassic Park III, 2015's Jurassic World, 2018's Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, or the 2022 movie Jurassic World Dominion. The dinosaur's appearance in The Land Before Time marks it out as a point of fascination for paleontologists and natural historians, but it remains to be seen if it will ever be adapted into live-action.