# "Life ... uh ... finds a way." **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 28, 2018, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-uh-finds-a-way/818715 "2018-07-28T02:40:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2018, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-uh-finds-a-way/818715/21 "2018-07-28T13:30:28Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > I don’t think it’s that contrived. Someone is brought in to write a program that reads the number of dinosaurs, and is told there are 300 animals. (I don’t remember how they were detected so that they could be counted with a computer.) So the programmer writes DO WHILE DCOUNT LE 300… [Read sensor data and add one for each unique one]… END-DO… DISPLAY DCOUNT ’ dinosaurs counted.’ I don’t know if I was fanwanking while watching, but I inferred the code went out to look for 300 specific signals to ensure each unique dinosaur’s location was known, and then checked the count to make sure each one was there on the island. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2018, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-uh-finds-a-way/818715/22 "2018-07-28T13:56:57Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > I don’t know if I was fanwanking while watching, but I inferred the code went out to look for 300 specific signals to ensure each unique dinosaur’s location was known, and then checked the count to make sure each one was there on the island. I don’t know how they detected the dinosaurs. It was a major [drama button moment](https://www.myinstants.com/instant/drama/) in the book when it was revealed the dinosaurs were being undercounted. One would think that RFID chips would be used to track the animals, but the plot point relied on animals that would _not_ have been chipped but were still able to be counted – but weren’t because of the improper coding. ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2018, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-uh-finds-a-way/818715/23 "2018-07-28T14:05:06Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > You know, that never sat right with me because it’s so contrived, from a coding point of view. As in, you have to add useless code for the count to stop at 300, instead of just “If NonTalliedDinosaur()=true then TotalCount++ ; printf TotalCount” which is what any slacker, I mean coder, would do even if they had zero foresight or inkling the dinosaurs might start bumping cloacas on the sly. It’s just pointless to add a hardcap to the count ! It doesn’t speed up the count or make it run smoother or nothing. It merely allows dinosaurs to reproduce on the down low. I am so unappreciated in my time. You can run this whole park from this one room with minimal staff for up to three days. Do you really think that kind of automation is easy [takes a drink of soda] or cheap? Do you know anyone who can network eight connection machines or debug two million lines of code for what I bid for this job? Because if you do I’d love to see them try. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2018, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-uh-finds-a-way/818715/24 "2018-07-28T14:27:22Z")
> [@simster](#): > > I am so unappreciated in my time. You can run this whole park from this one room with minimal staff for up to three days. Do you really think that kind of automation is easy [takes a drink of soda] or cheap? Do you know anyone who can network eight connection machines or debug two million lines of code for what I bid for this job? Because if you do I’d love to see them try. Eh, no wonder you’re extinct. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2018, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-uh-finds-a-way/818715/25 "2018-07-28T14:39:05Z")
> [@Filbert](#): > > It doesn’t even need the dodgy ‘frog DNA allows them to change sex’ explanation. In 2006, a Komodo Dragon at Chester zoo laid eggs. It was female, and it’d never been in the same enclosure as a male. They looked like decent eggs, so staff stuck 'em in the incubator. Several hatched. Testing confirmed all the DNA was from the mother. > > Until that point, despite being a well known species, no one had any idea that Komodo Dragons were capable of parthenogenesis. They’re hardly the [only](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Mexico_whiptail) reptile species that are either. > [@Broomstick](#): > > Not only can female Komodo dragons spontaneously produce viable eggs, they can also produce _males_ in that manner (they, obviously, use a different sex-determination system than mammals do). If dinosaurs were like modern birds, then they undoubtedly use the [ZW sex-determination system](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZW_sex-determination_system), where the female is the heterogametic sex. Instead of XX = female and XY = male like it mammals, birds use ZZ = male and ZW = female. Hence a female bird (and probably a dinosaur) can produce both male and female offspring even if it reproduces via parthenogenesis. ---
**Author:** ![Some\_Call\_Me.Tim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Some\_Call\_Me.Tim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Some_Call_Me.Tim)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2018, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-uh-finds-a-way/818715/26 "2018-07-28T14:43:35Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > You know, that never sat right with me because it’s so contrived, from a coding point of view. As in, you have to add useless code for the count to stop at 300, instead of just “If NonTalliedDinosaur()=true then TotalCount++ ; printf TotalCount” which is what any slacker, I mean coder, would do even if they had zero foresight or inkling the dinosaurs might start bumping cloacas on the sly. It’s just pointless to add a hardcap to the count ! It doesn’t speed up the count or make it run smoother or nothing. It merely allows dinosaurs to reproduce on the down low. Eh, I can totally see the slacker adding “if TotalCount==300 return true” immediately after the ++ in the AreAllDinosCounted routine. Presumably there’s some sort of expected duration sufficient to count ‘all’ the dinos, and the routine raises a ‘MissingDinos’ alarm if AreAllDinosCounted fails to return true within that timeframe. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2018, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-uh-finds-a-way/818715/27 "2018-07-28T14:55:20Z")
> [@Terminus\_Est](#): > > If dinosaurs were like modern birds, then they undoubtedly use the [ZW sex-determination system](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZW_sex-determination_system), where the female is the heterogametic sex. Instead of XX = female and XY = male like it mammals, birds use ZZ = male and ZW = female. Hence a female bird (and probably a dinosaur) can produce both male and female offspring even if it reproduces via parthenogenesis. This is both weird and awesome and I thank you for enlightening me on the topic. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2018, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-uh-finds-a-way/818715/28 "2018-07-28T14:58:02Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > > [@Terminus\_Est](#): > > > > If dinosaurs were like modern birds, then they undoubtedly use the [ZW sex-determination system](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZW_sex-determination_system), where the female is the heterogametic sex. Instead of XX = female and XY = male like it mammals, birds use ZZ = male and ZW = female. Hence a female bird (and probably a dinosaur) can produce both male and female offspring even if it reproduces via parthenogenesis. > > This is both weird and awesome and I thank you for enlightening me on the topic. More weirdness: Some reef fish are hierarchical, with a female at the top. When the female dies, and if a male is ‘second in line’, the male will turn into a female. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2018, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-uh-finds-a-way/818715/29 "2018-07-28T16:04:10Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > More weirdness: Some reef fish are hierarchical, with a female at the top. When the female dies, and if a male is ‘second in line’, the male will turn into a female. Cecil had a [brief column on the topic](https://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/60/do-goldfish-start-off-as-females-and-turn-into-males/), back in the day. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2018, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-uh-finds-a-way/818715/30 "2018-07-28T17:04:52Z")
Michael Crichton had a thing against centralized, automated control systems (see also _Westworld_ [1973]). He also frequently did a kind of strawman thing making many of the technological scientists/engineers in his stories short-sighted and arrogant, just to knock them down with old-school heroes. Most of the decisions on how InGen and Hammond ran the park were arbitrarily chosen to make a point. A lot of the overall secrecy of the operation was also to make the story seem to fit in the real world, much like why the Ark of the Covenant was locked away at the end of _Raiders_. ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2018, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-uh-finds-a-way/818715/31 "2018-07-28T19:07:20Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > I don’t know how they detected the dinosaurs. It was a major [drama button moment](https://www.myinstants.com/instant/drama/) in the book when it was revealed the dinosaurs were being undercounted. One would think that RFID chips would be used to track the animals, but the plot point relied on animals that would _not_ have been chipped but were still able to be counted – but weren’t because of the improper coding. He did it on purpose to hide extra dinosaurs. He was paid to do it. I think it was part of the grand plan to steal the eggs, but the saboteurs didn’t realize that dinosaurs were also breeding. ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2018, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-uh-finds-a-way/818715/32 "2018-07-28T20:01:31Z")
Where did the _original_ fertilized eggs come from? When that raptor chick hatched out of its egg in front of Grant’s party, what had fertilized that egg? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2018, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-uh-finds-a-way/818715/33 "2018-07-28T20:14:15Z")
> [@Sunny\_Daze](#): > > He did it on purpose to hide extra dinosaurs. He was paid to do it. I think it was part of the grand plan to steal the eggs, but the saboteurs didn’t realize that dinosaurs were also breeding. I don’t recall that from either the book or the film. In the book, it was a dumb error. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2018, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-uh-finds-a-way/818715/34 "2018-07-28T21:03:09Z")
> [@ekedolphin](#): > > Where did the _original_ fertilized eggs come from? When that raptor chick hatched out of its egg in front of Grant’s party, what had fertilized that egg? Hey, fertilization happens at parties all the time. ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2018, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-uh-finds-a-way/818715/35 "2018-07-28T21:19:23Z")
> [@bryan ekers](#): > > eh, no wonder you’re extinct. am not! ---
**Author:** ![MyFootsZZZ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/myfootszzz/32/12580_2.png) [@MyFootsZZZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MyFootsZZZ)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2018, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-uh-finds-a-way/818715/36 "2018-07-28T21:34:40Z")
Where did all they get the DNA of the aquatic animals in Jurassic World? ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2018, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-uh-finds-a-way/818715/37 "2018-07-28T22:06:28Z")
Same place as the others, I think. Amber is magical stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2018, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-uh-finds-a-way/818715/38 "2018-07-28T22:13:04Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > I don’t recall that from either the book or the film. In the book, it was a dumb error. On re-thinking, I’m not completely sure. I know he re-jiggered some of the code, but I’m not sure if this was impacted. I’m going to re-read it. It was probably a dumb error (a really dumb error), and the code changes were all to security. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2018, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-uh-finds-a-way/818715/39 "2018-07-28T22:30:11Z")
The way it was supposed to work, was that eggs were fertilized by guys in white lab coats with syringes, who got the stuff in the syringes from their magic genetics lab. The way it really worked was that a few (300) of the dinosaurs were created that way, but then some of them went and turned male and the newly-male ones and the ones that remained female paired up and did it dino style and laid new eggs that worked just like they did 65 million years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2018, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-uh-finds-a-way/818715/40 "2018-07-28T23:11:06Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > I don’t know how they detected the dinosaurs. It was a major [drama button moment](https://www.myinstants.com/instant/drama/) in the book when it was revealed the dinosaurs were being undercounted. One would think that RFID chips would be used to track the animals, but the plot point relied on animals that would _not_ have been chipped but were still able to be counted – but weren’t because of the improper coding. IIRC in the book Dino’s were tracked via motion sensors and infrared cameras that were automated to be able to weed out repeats to get accurate numbers since Hammond wanted a hands-off approach to keeping track of them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-uh-finds-a-way/818715.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-uh-finds-a-way/818715.md?page=3)