Extinction Now! statement for the Senate debate 1 Should the Necrofauna on Isla Nublar be Allowed to Become Extinct?: A Report on the Inexorable Mount Sibo Eruption Abstract In 2015, the then - popular theme park Jurassic World on Isla Nublar was affected by a major containment breach, involving the escape of a transgenic organism known as the Indominus rex . This escaped animal caused a series of destructive events, culminating in the collapse of the park. Four years on, the dormant volcano in the north - eastern sector of Isla Nublar, known as Mount Sibo, threatens to erupt. In this report we put forward a question to the authorial conscience of the scientific community: should the necrofauna be allowed to become extinct? Data suggests that, due to their prior history in captivity, many of the animals are totally inept in response to cataclysm s, with three species having already become extinct. Those better suited to their environment, though, may prove to be an ecological issue if extracted from the island. We conclude that, considering the data presented here, the necrofauna from Isla Nublar be left on the island to become extinct at the hands of the volcano. Ab breviat ions USCBD = U S Commission on Biotechnological Developments BONA = Bureau of Necrofaunal Affairs ICGEB = International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology CRIV = Costa Rican Institu te of Volcanology DGM = Director ate of Geology and Min es Jurassic World Incident The Jurassic World incident is notorious for being one of the most catastrophic theme park - related calamities in recent memory , with approximately 35 recorded deaths, and somewhere between 250 – 300 injured ; the Masrani Corporation have withheld the true figures, though with roughly $ 150 million in damage incurred, one may reasonably assume that these deaths and injuries are a rough approximation , and that the number could be higher or lower than depicted here In any case, the Final Incident Investigation Report published by the USCBD, B O N A, and ICGEB indicates that the incident was largely down to corporate negligence; the enclosure housing the organism known as the Indominus rex was structurally unsound, and a lack of enrichment or other stimulation — as w ell as the alleged experimentation performed on the animal — may mean that the individual was in a state of psychological decline at the time of the Jurassic World incident. The evidence pointing towards its function as a weapon of war, as also put forward by the USCBD, BONA and ICGEB, indicates that its mere existence was highly illegal . Were the correct guidelines to have been followed, the incident would not have occurred. The International Justice Court therefore hold s Masrani Global accountable for the preventable deaths of 35 individuals , including CEO Simon Masrani. In summary, the Jurassic World incident was the result of corporate greed ine vitably leading to innocent human death; some argue it should be labelled as unlawful killing, and the sentiment has arisen that those involved in the creation of the Indominus rex should be taken into custody at best, and given t he death pena lty at worst. Extinction Now! statement for the Senate debate 2 Ecology In the months after the Jurassic World incident, necrofaunal populations on Isla Nublar saw a rapid decli ne (Fig. 1). Of the species formerly present in the 1993 Nublar park, many of which were either exhibited or had descendants that were exhibited in Jurassic World, three taxa ( Brachiosaurus , Parasaurolophus spp. , and Stegosaurus ) have seen a significant reduction in numbers. In contrast, seven Masrani - bred taxa ( Daspletosaurus , Ouranosaurus , Pachycephalosau rus spp., Peloroplites , Suchomimus , Teratophoneus , and Yangchuanosaurus ) have seen sign ificant reductions in nu mbers, while three ( Corythosaurus and Lesothosaurus ) , have become totally ex tinct. A direc t correlation exists between the initial time of release (1993 a s opposed to 2015) and rates of survival, indicating that “ re wil ded ” individuals may remember some signifiers regarding appropriate environmental parameters for interaction, such as nutrition and overall safety. Conversely, Masrani - bred individuals re leased into the wild tend to e xperience various si tuations for the first time, and are thus mo re prone to envi ronm ental change. Somewhat ironical ly, the older InGen breed appears to be more ecologically viable than the newer Masrani breed. Exceptions exist, though: Masrani ’ s population of Dilophosauru s wetherilli far es quite well, and in areas where holdovers of InGen ’ s Pteranodon population and the newer Masrani population coexist, niche partitioning has occurred — InGen Pteranodon feed on small terrestrial prey, whi le Masrani Pteranodon feed on marine fauna. Among many species, a peculiar imbalance has occurred. Genera such as Carnotaurus and Daspletosaurus have grown to outnum ber most other archpredators, albe it without signs of outright domination . This has caused a significant disturbance in herbi vorous populations , resulting in overcrowding and nutritional imbalance. Specifically, evidence points towards Fig. 1: A line graph showing the popula tion decline of all InGen/Masrani necrofauna over the past fe w years. 100 70 75 50 49 53 39 27 99 45 30 25 20 23 25 20 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 2015 Early 2016 Late 2016 Early 2017 Late 2017 Early 2018 Late 2018 Early 2019 Surviving Isla Nublar dinosaurs Survivors/descendants of survivors (1993) Survivors/descendants of survivors (2015) Extinction Now! statement for the Senate debate 3 Daspletosaurus being predators specializing in large hadrosaurids, including Parasaurolophus As a result, t he already - crippled populations of these hadrosaurs have been drastically decreased ; it i s believed that the extinction of Corythosaurus is directly tied to such predator y pressure s. Conversel y, Ca rnotaurus has proven to specialize in hunting smaller prey, up to the size of a man for the most part. This has negatively af fected the Nubla r tufted deer, an anomalous member o f an otherwis e Asian clade. Both such patterns are consistent with fossil data. Regardless, herbivore populations are drastically reducing , and it appears th at , even were it not for the inevitable volcan ic eruption, Isla Nu blar ’ s biosphere would soon collapse under its own ecological burdens. Geology It has bec ome abundantly obvious that Isla N u blar ’s volcano, Mount Sibo , is on the verge of erupting. The geological evidence has been apparent for decades, even before the construction of Jurassic Park back in the 1980s, though it has been metaphorically swept under the rug CRIV statistics from February 2017 revealed that a shift in tectonic plates resulted in minor a ftershoc ks, creating a minor fissu re that trig gered a rise in temperatures ; the reclassification of Mt. S ibo as active came only months later, when a private helicopter illegally flew too close to the island, and its passengers observed magma r up tures at the peak. Visible plumes of smoke are attributed to biological matter igniting due to the change in te mperature. Ash and toxic gasses are fre quently d e posited across the island, resulting in mass - deaths, which has led to the extinction of Lesothosaurus and the population decline of Peloroplites The CRIV initially classified Mt. Si bo as MAG 0 3 on the Volcanic Status Level (VSL), with a Volcanic Exp losivity Index (VEI) of 5, meaning that an eruption o n the same scale as Mount Saint Helens was probable. Subsequent statistics reclassify it a s MAG O 4 and VEI 6, meaning an ultra - P linian eruption is inevitab le; the eruption will rival Krakatoa in scale. Th e precise destructive power is unknown, though high - ene rgy particle scans by the CRIV and the D GM reveal large chambers o f highly pressurized magma. The Dinosaur Protection Group ’ s erroneous rec koning is that the eruption will merely cause widespread damage. H owever , cons ulta tion with geologists from the US GS, CRIV and DGM suggest s that Mount Still from a preliminary simulation o f Mount Sibo ’ s eruption, based on the assumption that it would be a VEI 5 Extinction Now! statement for the Senate debate 4 Sibo will collapse into a cald era upon erupting. This will create a large cloud o f superheated dus t trailin g the pyroclastic flow, resulting in a 5 - k m - wide ring of devastation surrounding Isla Nublar. Eventually, Isla Nublar will break apart into chunks as thousands of tonnes of material pours into the ocean . The remnants may form a small archipelago . Ul timately, the DPG proposal — as per usual — down plays the se verity of the eruption. A rough t imeline of the volcan ic er uption is as follows: 1. The volcano experiences a ma jor sur ge in geological seismic activity. Earthqu akes m ay be felt as far a way as southern Cali f ornia. 2. A plume of ash rises above the volcano ; light ning strikes b ecome more prevalent as particles of volcanogenic trachyandesite (and possibly micaceous schists or rhyolites) rain down , interacting and producing an ele ctrical charge. Eruption officially begins. 3. Gas explosions begin to occur within 0.5 miles of the volcano, sparking large fires. Simultaneously, the r ate of earthquakes continues to i ncrease. 4. With a sudden burst of energy , the pressure on the trachyandesitic magma beneath the volcano is released Superheated du st and rock condense, landslides occur on the edges of the volcano. 5. The eruption column col la pses and gas explosions intensify. Pyroclastic flows form. 6. Pres sure within the magma chambers reaches a critically low level; they collapse in on themselves, generating powerful surges of kinetic e nergy, increasing temperatures. Ultimately , the entire volcano caves in. By the climax of the eruption, it i s quite possible that all terrestrial life on Isla Nublar will extinct. Volant taxa such as Pteranodon will quite probably reach the mainland — such was recorded following the 2001 incid ent, in which three InGen Pterano don arrived in Vancouver and were promptly relocated to Nublar. Data suggests that at l east five distin ct “ radiations ” of Procompsognathus have reached the m ainland, though whether this is due to a natural migration or accidental transportation by ships is un clear. Whatever the case, on Isla Nublar itself, all life will be extinguished. It is here that the propagandic ut terances of the DPG rear their ugly head, as th ey pose the milli on - dollar question: should non - avian dinosaurs be extracted from Isla Nublar and transported elsewhere? Should dinosaurs be saved ? It is here that, for whomever may be familiar with the D inosaur Protection Group ’ s practises, a brief primer may be neces sary. Founded in early 201 7 by Cl aire Dearing — whom was responsible f or sanctioning the Indom inus rex ’ creation — the DG S ’ website cla ims that they are dedicated to “ establishing and protecting the rights of all living dinosaurs ” , operating on the principl e that “ dinosaurs are not ours to exper iment upon or exploit for entertainment o r financial gain ” A tad ironic , considering Dearing ’ s direct involvement in the exploitation of necrofauna for entertainment and financial gain The Gene Guard Act, on which they base their claims, is in fact only a half - hearted gesture: it was improp erly established based on a misunders tanding of the laws go verning en dange red species. While the DPG holds that necrofauna l species have the same rights as naturally occurring on es, the sl ap - dash nature of Extinction Now! statement for the Senate debate 5 the Gene Guard Act means that this is not the case. Th us, it can be said that from the very beginning, the ir argument is shak y at best Superseding the legal aspect of their unorthodox operation, though, is the ecologica l aspect. If their pipe dream of extracting dinosaurs from Isla Nublar was to be fulfilled, the ramifications for native ecosystems w ould be disastrous. Let us assume for but a moment that Nub lar ’ s dinosaurs somehow ended up on the U S mainland , using a common (and admittedly pestilent ) example. As established before, between 2015 and 2018, at least five di stinct migrations of Procompsognathus have taken place, with individuals reaching the east coast of Central America and southern North America. Th is has led to a sever e decrease in the population sizes o f small predators such as crab - eating rac coons and ca comistles, which have become all but extinct in some regions. But P rocompsognathus are only small animals, barely larg er than an American badger. If a Triceratops herd ended up on the mainland and was ab le to breed , it would swiftly outcompete all local herbivores; fossil evidence suggests that Triceratops was the most abundant large h erbivore in Late Cretac eous North America. The same may one day be true again , at th e cost of our native sp ecies. B ut herbivo res and small carnivor es aside, let us consider for a moment what an animal such as Tyrannosaurus rex , or a loose hunting group of Daspletosaurus , would be capable of doing if they were not killed by poachers , or even the U S military I f we are to assume tha t no large herbivores are present to serv e as a food supply, a tyrannosaurid would have to rely on species such as bu ffalo, deer, elk, and perhaps even bears and wolves. Assuming a dietary requirement of 1 1 0 kg of meat per day for a ten - t onne animal , a T. rex would need to take down at most seven buffalo every week to survive A pack of Daspletosaurus would need to eat a very similar amount , having a slightly higher metabolic rate a nd need ing to provide f or more than one individua l , with an average of 106. 5 kg of meat per day. Th e same number of buffalo would need to be eaten each day. By combining them, one gets a sum of 206.5 kg of meat per day, which is 14 buffa lo every week. The buff alo population, of course, cannot withstand such harsh predation indefinitely. And yet the re is still a wild fantasy among the DPG that dinosaurs and North Ame rican wildl ife ca n coexist. Conclusion Overall, despite the wishes o f the Claire Dearing to “ atone for her sins ” by backpedalling on her view of dinosaurs as corporate money - makers, it is abundantly clear that the necrofauna on Isla Nublar cannot, and sho uld not, be transported from the island. While we will not discour age certain ventures t o rescue species ind igenous to the isla nd, such as the Nu blar tufted deer, we cannot possibly endorse a land mark project with such catastrophic ecological ramifications. At this point, the viability of exporting any type of new species is totally off the table.