Question:

To what extent, are the realistic-looking depictions of dinosaurs in Jurassic Park based on scientific evidence?

Answer:

Virtually all the evidence about dinosaurs of the Jurassic Period is deduced from fossilized imprints of bones, teeth and excrement often found in sedimentary rocks, asphalt deposits and coal. Palenotology, a science developed in the nineteenth-century by Baron George Cuviers, attempts to extrapolate the size, shape and nature of the creatures that left these fossilized imprints, fossilized molds and other fossilized clues, almost all of which is inorganic material. They have been most successful is restoring the bone structure of dinosaurs and, from fossilized coprolites found in the same mass sites, infer they eating habits.

Paleontologists have not been able to determine, though they have conflicting theories, their skin color, their skin texture, their intelligence, or even whether they were warm-blooded or cold-blooded animals.