The Bowmans get their daughter to a hospital where her injuries are treated. The readers know it is dinosaurs, but the characters are shown to be rightfully puzzled by events. Over confidence, a common villain in Crichton novels makes an appearance, as Dr. Gutierrez assumes that the girl must have been attacked by a common basilisk, because that is the only potential lizard he knows of that fits her description. Even when Christina Bowman describes that the animal had three toes, not four, he assumes her to be an unreliable narrator.

Calling out the three toes and having the young Bowman compare the tracks in the sand to those of the birds on the beach serves to make the dinosaurs more real. Jurassic Park succeeds as the great novel of dinosaur realism because of these common links that Crichton makes from the extinct dinosaurs to modern living animals.

Best Writing, Quotes:

“Then what could it be?” Dr. Cruz to Dr. Gutierrez.

They’re framing the problem wrong. Because they can’t conceive of something other than a basilisk, they force the answer to be a basilisk. This same issue will come up later in Jurassic Park when the system starts trying to count the number of dinosaurs on the island – a forcing function leads to the wrong answer, because they’ve asked the question the wrong way.

Page by Page:

“Mike would not soon forget the frantic drive back to civilization, the four-wheel drive Land Rover slipping and sliding up the muddy track into the hills, while his daughter screamed in fear and pain, and her arm grew more bloated and red.” Page 16

She’s been attacked by small dinosaurs that are dangerous in a real way that is unexpected to the modern reader. We’re learning that the creatures are real, we’re learning of the dangers the heroes will face when they eventually voyage into Jurassic Park.

“She has drawn it standing on its hind legs…” Page 17 – Dr. Cruz says of the picture drawn by the daughter of her dinosaur assailant. The reader knows its dinosaurs, but the characters do not yet know.

“I am sure this lizard was a Basiliscus amoratus, a striped basilisk lizard found here in Costa Rica and also in Honduras.” says Dr. Gutierrez. Page 18

Over confidence is often the villain in Crichton novels. That is true here and will only grow as the plot thickens.

“And she said there were three toes on the foot.” Ellen tells the ‘expert’ that his hypothesis doesn’t fit. Why wouldn’t her daughter be an accurate narrator? Page 19

“Immediately the analysis of the saliva was halted, even though a preliminary fractionation showed several extremely high molecular weight proteins of unknown biological activity.” Page 20

As in many Crichton novels, an automated process is halted because of human error. This was common in Andromeda Strain and will also cost lives through the rest of this book.

“She held up her hand, middle three fingers spread wide. “And the lizard made those kind of marks in the sand, too.” Christina Bowman to her mother, Page 21.

“Then what could it be?” Dr. Cruz to Dr. Gutierrez.

They’re framing the problem wrong. Because they can’t conceive of something other than a basilisk, they force the answer to be a basilisk. This same issue will come up later in Jurassic Park when the system starts trying to count the number of dinosaurs on the island – a forcing function leads to the wrong answer, because they’ve asked the question the wrong way.