Technology
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It’s been 26 years since Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park novel came out, and we’re still no closer to a genetically recreated dinosaur amusement park. But as a great "chaotician" once said, life, uh, finds a way.
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.Japanese company ON-ART Corp has created the next best thing: huge, super-realistic, moving Tyrannosaurus rex models. The dinosaurs were revealed in Tokyo this week by Japan’s answer to John Hammond, CEO Kazuya Kanemaru, along with his idea to create an amusement park full of these creations, Japanese newspaper Ashi Shumbun reports.
The dinosaur replicas were modeled on fossilized skeletons, crafted out of carbon fiber, and controlled by a human operator inside the model. They’re also incredibly light, weighing only 38 kilograms (83 pounds) each, making them easy to control.
“We want to develop 20 to 30 mechanical dinosaurs by 2018 and hold large-scale shows in and outside Japan,” Kanemaru told the Japanese newspaper. “We would be happy if we could be involved in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and highlight the spirit of the Japanese tradition of ‘monozukuri’ [manufacturing].”
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