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Who's venom is more deadly?

posted by JPTGfan on - last edited - Viewed by 515 users

Which one of the game's dinosaurs' venom do you think is more deadly. Is it Dilophosaurus who's venom causes blindness, paralysis, and disorientation? Or is it Troodon who's venom causes hallucination, paralysis, and brain death? I think it's Troodon.

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  • The Troodon seems to cause total parayisis and coma eventually just from a single bite without immediate treatment. I would say that was much worse than dilo which (being projectile) seemed to have the chance of missing (it only looked to do damage when shot directly into the face, safety glasses would be very useful against these things).

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    When trying to estimate the potency of venom the two factors that need to be considered are the amount of venom that the animal gets into the wound, and how quickly it takes effect. Consider that the snake which is regarded as the most dangerous in the world, the Black Mamba, is not the one that has the most potent venom, but the one that strieks multipile times, getting more of its venom into the target.

    So, how effective are Troodon and Dilos at envenomation, and how quickly do they kill the victim?

    Although best known for spitting, the dilos can still envenomate by bite - it's established in the novel that its their saliva that is venomous, and by biting and chewing (like a gila monster), they can work signifigant quanities of venom into the wound (the movie animal appears to have venom sacs that inflate in the throat, but these could be regurgitation chambers into which they hock large quantities of saliva to expell). The spitting just gives them a second option and allows them to target animals much bigger than themselves. It is not established however, just how powerful dilo venom is, and whether the crude method of bite/chew would deliver enough of it to kill a human (the book says that they hunted rats on the island - biting them and then stepping back to wait for the rodents to die, which suggests a relatively low level of potency. Extremely venomous snakes have venom that can kill small animals almost instantly).

    The dilos MUST also bite to induce paralysis - spitting the venom into the eyes causes disoreientating pain and, by association cornea damage and blindness, but they would need to introduce their venom into the bloodstream in order to allow it to attack the nervous system. Blinding the target simply makes it easier to subdue.

    HOWEVER, the dilos, which are pack hunters, might then simply dogpile a blinded victim and bite multiple times, meaning that a fatal dosage of even a mild venon could be administered.

    From Sorkin's testimony, the Troodon are much more adept at envenomation - although they have not developed the hollow fangs which make snakes and spiders so adept at venom delivery, their serrated teeth allow them to retain much larger quantities of venom than the dilos, allowing them to deliver a fatal dosage with a single bite, removing the need to chew.

    That said, the fact that Troodon venom, even with a massively fatal dosage, causes a slow, lingering death, suggests that it is the less potent of the two - dilo venom seems to kill quicker. If we look at it from an evolutionary perspective, the behavioral issues associated with Troodon may have arisen from the slow effectiveness of their venom, causing them to tailor their hunting strategy to match.


    From the evidence, the venom of the two creatures would seem to be relatively mild, and given that its venom is extremely slow-acting Troodon saliva is most likely less effective than that of the Dilo. However, of the two animals, I would definately rank the Troodon as the more dangerous, because of the nasty side-effects the venom brings about.


    I just remembered that Muldoon in the novel described Dilo venom in the following words; 'in the eyes its painful but not lethal', suggesting that a bite would/could kill a human. Based on this, I feel we could say with confidence that Dilo venom is the more potent of the two, given that a small dose can attack the nervous system fast enough to cause paralysis, wheras Troodon venon, even with a much large dosage administered, takes much longer.

    That said, the dilo might be more effective at envenomation than I thought - given it has the ability to expell venom at a high velocity, it might just bite onto a victim and spit INTO the wound.

    Again however, Troodon more dangerous animal due to it's intelligence and the debilatating side effects of the venom - furthermore Sorkin describes the Dilos as tenacious, but I think even they would draw the line at stalking the Harding's jeep right across Nublar.

    The game has however made me much more wary/respectful of the lil' dilos, because when not constrained by animatronics, those things are FAST and agile!

  • I might want to change to Dilophosaurus after TB3's post.

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