Ellie Sattler (S/F)

Dr. Sattler (2022)

Dr. Ellie Sattler is an American paleobotanist, ecologist, and nonfiction science author. She is best known for her work alongside vertebrate paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant, and to some extent for being a witness of the 1993 incident on Isla Nublar, which she has attempted to distance herself from. She is also known for her role in the 2022 incident in Biosyn Valley, which exposed corruption in Biosyn Genetics and established the present-day politics surrounding Biosyn Valley along with ending the hybrid locust plague. Over the months preceding the incident, Dr. Sattler had been studying the plague and independently realized its cause.

In recent years, Dr. Sattler has used her background in science to act as a consultant on agriculture. By studying the evolutionary history of ecology involving plant life, she has devised new methods for sustainable soil use, regenerative farming practices, and cleaner biofuel production.

Name

“Ellie” is usually a nickname for Ellen, but it is not currently known if Dr. Sattler goes by a nickname or if Ellie is her legal given name. The name Ellen comes from English and means “bright, shining light,” while her surname Sattler is German in origin and refers to a person who manufactures saddles.

Biography
Early life

Dr. Sattler’s exact date of birth is not known, but she was in her late twenties as of June 1993. This would mean that she was born in the mid-1960s. It is also unknown precisely where she was born aside from in the United States. Much of her career has taken place in the central region of the country, such as Montana and Texas, although for a period of time she lived on the East Coast. It is unclear whether any of these areas are near where she grew up.

Much of her childhood is presently unknown.

Paleobotanical career

By the 1990s, Sattler had attained a doctorate degree in science from a currently-undisclosed institution. She made a career in paleobotany, or the study of ancient plants via their remains (such as pollen fossils, leaf impressions, and petrified wood). Her expertise included extant plant species as well as fossil taxa, and in addition to paleobotanical studies, she was sometimes involved in research into other aspects of prehistoric ecosystems.

Dr. Sattler (1993)

By her late twenties, she had become acquainted with vertebrate paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant, with whom she became romantically involved. She was known to work with Grant on paleontological digs, including a productive site in the badlands near Snakewater, Montana which unearthed exceptional deinonychosaur remains during the summer of 1993. This expedition was funded by International Genetic Technologies CEO John Hammond.

It appears that Dr. Sattler was interested in having children in the future, while Dr. Grant did not share this interest and often had difficulty interacting with children. They did at some point own a macaw named Jack, which they taught to speak.

1993 incident

On June 7, 1993, Hammond approached Dr. Grant at the Snakewater site to offer him a scientific consultant position at an upcoming InGen theme park, Jurassic Park, in exchange for a further three years of funding. Neither Grant nor Sattler had met Hammond in person before this point. Hammond extended the invitation to Sattler, who agreed to the job along with Grant. Hammond informed them that paleontological expertise would provide valuable insight into the park’s operation, and that they would enjoy what the park had to offer; he did not elaborate on what, exactly, the park was, other than a state-of-the-art edutainment attraction.

Sattler traveled along with Grant and Hammond via helicopter to Choteau, Montana from which they took a jet to Costa Rica. Here they met fellow consultants Dr. Ian Malcolm and Donald Gennaro, who joined them on the helicopter flight west from Costa Rica to Isla Nublar. They arrived on the island on June 11. On the flight, Malcolm openly flirted with Dr. Sattler, while Gennaro failed to make a significant impression.

While traveling by jeep across the island toward its Visitors’ Centre, Sattler observed a plant which she identified as a species of veriforman known only from Cretaceous fossils. While she marveled at this impossible flora, Hammond directed the jeeps to a large field within the park’s paddock areas where he demonstrated to them other examples of de-extinct life InGen had created: a herd of Brachiosaurus and Parasaurolophus, which captivated the paleontologists. From here he took his consultants to the Visitors’ Centre.

At the Centre, Sattler was briefed on how InGen had managed to perform de-extinction via the extraction of Mesozoic ancient DNA from hematophagous organisms preserved in amber samples. The endorsement group also witnessed the Centre’s laboratory on the tour, with Sattler and the other scientists leaving the tour against Hammond’s wishes to view the laboratory up close. In particular, they were interested in seeing the ostrich and emu eggs used to bear dinosaur embryos; they were able to witness a hatching Velociraptor. Grant requested to see the adult raptors, which the group observed at feeding time.

Sobered by the raptors’ vicious feeding behavior, Sattler began to recognize more threats to Park stability in the Visitors’ Centre, which she voiced to Hammond during lunch. She noted, for example, that the decorative plants in the Centre included some poisonous species that could be harmful to guests. Despite not having seen the Park in whole yet, Sattler deduced based on InGen’s casual use of dangerous plant species that the company was equally ignorant of the ecology of its animal species.

Before setting off on the automated Park tour, the endorsement group was introduced to Hammond’s two grandchildren, Lex and Tim Murphy, who would be accompanying them. Sattler, who disagreed with Grant on the topic of having children, attempted to force Grant to interact with the Murphy children by sitting in the rear tour vehicle and telling Lex in particular to sit with Grant. However, Grant managed to leave both children in the fore vehicle with Mr. Gennaro, joining Drs. Sattler and Malcolm in the rear vehicle. During the tour, Malcolm and Sattler became increasingly familiar with each other, though Grant disapproved of Malcolm’s playfully flirtatious behavior. Sattler went along with Malcolm’s flirting because of how much it annoyed her boyfriend, enjoying teasing him.

Despite her reservations concerning the treatment of the Park’s animals, Dr. Sattler was by all accounts thrilled to see such dinosaurian species as Dilophosaurus, Tyrannosaurus, and Triceratops; due to unfavorable viewing conditions, however, only the Triceratops left an impression on the guests.

While passing by an area of the trike paddock, Dr. Grant sighted a jeep in the field and left to investigate, followed by Dr. Sattler and then the others. They found a sickly Triceratops which was being tended to by Park veterinarian Dr. Gerry Harding. In short order, Sattler determined that the animal’s symptoms were pharmacological in nature, and originated from local plant life. An investigation of the paddock yielded the nonnative decorative plant Melia azedarach, which Dr. Harding stated was known to be toxic and was not eaten by the animals. In spite of this assurance, Sattler led the others in attempting to diagnose the animal’s illness, still certain that the plant’s berries were the cause. While stool samples did not contain any trace of the fruit, Tim was able to identify regurgitated gastroliths that the dinosaur had used; Sattler and Tim together determined that the dinosaur had swallowed the berries along with the stones and then regurgitated them without digesting the berries fully. This explained the animal’s periodic symptoms.

Due to an impending tropical storm, the tour was cut short in the afternoon, and the majority of the tour group returned to the vehicles and began traveling back in the direction they had come. Sattler remained with Dr. Harding and the trike, continuing to tend to its ailment. As the storm worsened, Harding drove Sattler back to the Visitors’ Centre. While they awaited the tour vehicles’ return, much of the electric power in the Park was shut down by a disgruntled employee following the evacuation of all non-essential staff from the island at 7:00pm CST. As the tour vehicles ran on electric power, they would be among the systems in the Park that would have shut down. After a search of the premises failed to locate the party responsible for the shutdown, Hammond requested that Park warden Robert Muldoon take a jeep and retrieve the marooned tour members. Sattler volunteered to go with him, worried for Dr. Grant’s safety.

Dr. Sattler and Robert Muldoon recover a wounded Dr. Malcolm, 6/11/1993

One of the tour vehicles was located near the tyrannosaur paddock, among significant evidence that the animal had broken out while the power was cut. Muldoon and Sattler discovered the scattered remains of Gennaro, a severely wounded but conscious Malcolm, and a trail of debris leading to the other tour vehicle, which had been pushed over a cliff within the tyrannosaur paddock. Malcolm was put into the jeep while Sattler investigated the damaged vehicle. Tyrannosaur vocalizations had been heard in the distance, so they worked quickly. Sattler found evidence that Grant and the children had survived the attack and retreated westward, in the direction of the Visitors’ Centre. She and Muldoon returned to the jeep shortly before the tyrannosaur appeared to pursue them; Sattler received a grazing wound from the tyrannosaur’s supraorbital crest as it struck the jeep with its head, but ultimately it became winded after chasing them for a brief time and fell behind. They were able to safely return to the Visitors’ Centre, but had no way of locating Grant and the children.

Sattler confronted Hammond about the Park’s failure that night, after administering morphine to Malcolm to ease his pain. While Hammond was hopeful that the Park could eventually be saved, Sattler attempted to convince him that the damage done was too great, and that their lack of knowledge on the island’s artificial ecosystem had prevented the Park’s success in the first place. She continued to worry about Grant and the children’s safety, though Hammond attempted to reassure her that Grant’s paleontological expertise could help them survive. Sattler spent the night of June 11 in the Visitors’ Centre.

On June 12, an attempt was made to restart the Park’s power by restarting the circuit breakers. Park technician Ray Arnold initiated this process, shutting down all remaining power in the Park from inside the Visitors’ Centre control room. In order to complete restarting the system, Arnold needed to access a different set of circuit breakers from inside the maintenance shed, located across the Visitor Compound from the Visitors’ Centre. While he set off to do this, Sattler took shelter within the emergency bunker along with Hammond, Malcolm, and Muldoon. Arnold failed to return; with his status unknown and power still not restored, Sattler and Muldoon again volunteered to go out and attempt recovery. Hammond protested, but was not allowed to accompany them.

On the way to the shed, Sattler and Muldoon passed the raptor holding pen, discovering that the dinosaurs had escaped confinement; the reset process had cut power to the remaining Park systems, including the raptor pen’s electric fences which had until that point remained on. Muldoon began stalking one of the escaped raptors while Sattler made a break for the shed, managing to get into the secure fenced area safely. She entered the shed, communicating with Malcolm and Hammond via UHF radios to navigate the building interior. Sattler located the breakers and completed the reset process, restoring power to the Park. After resetting the breakers, she was pursued out of the shed by the alpha Velociraptor, which she shut inside the building. In the process, she discovered Arnold’s severed arm, confirming that he had died.

Sattler made for the bunker to rejoin the others, but found Grant searching the Compound for her; they were both thrilled that the other had survived, and Sattler was also glad to learn that the children had reached the Visitors’ Centre alive. They both returned to the bunker to arm themselves against the remaining two raptors, discovering that Muldoon had died while Sattler was restoring the power. Grant and Sattler made for the Visitors’ Centre to recover the children.

They rejoined the children in the Centre’s rotunda, where they learned from the terrified children that the last two raptors were inside the building. One raptor had been locked in a walk-in freezer by the children, but the final one was still roaming the Visitors’ Centre. The four took shelter in the control room, followed by the animal which attempted to work the door latch to get inside. Sattler attempted to help Grant hold the door against the raptor, which meant that the gun they had brought was out of reach. Lex was able to finish undoing the sabotage in the Park’s systems and activate the electronic door locks, sealing the control room door against the raptor. Grant called Hammond and informed him of the situation while Sattler kept an eye on the raptor through the windows. While Grant was able to get Hammond to call a helicopter from the mainland, Sattler alerted the others that the raptor was preparing to break through the window. Grant attempted to shoot at it, but missed; the gun jammed, forcing them to retreat as the raptor again prepared to break in. They fled into the ventilation system to escape the control room.

Sattler and the others fled through the ventilation with the raptor in pursuit, escaping into the main rotunda. They used the construction scaffolding and fossil displays to reach the floor, causing the collapse of the Alamosaurus fossil; Sattler sustained mild injuries from this. On the floor, they were surrounded as the alpha raptor joined her remaining subordinate. Sattler and Grant tried to protect the children, but were ultimately saved only by the sudden appearance of the tyrannosaur which ambushed and killed the alpha raptor. While the last raptor threw itself at the tyrannosaur in a fit of rage, Sattler and the others escaped from the Visitors’ Centre and were picked up by Hammond and Malcolm in a Jeep.

They arrived at the helipad at nearly the same time as the helicopter that was sent to rescue them, boarding the helicopter and leaving the island.

Aftermath of the incident

InGen had all survivors of the incident sign nondisclosure agreements in order to contain bad press about what had happened on Isla Nublar. Sattler, along with everyone else except Malcolm, respected her nondisclosure agreement and did not speak about the incident to the public. However, this did not save her from the psychological trauma that resulted from it. The raptors in particular left mental scars on both Grant and Sattler, and while Grant dealt with his trauma by intensely studying raptor fossils to understand them, Sattler was unable to continue with a paleontological career and temporarily left the field. This, among other things, drove a wedge between Sattler and Grant; their relationship ended sometime in 1995, though they remained friends. Sattler kept their pet macaw.

Dr. Malcolm’s violation of his nondisclosure agreement in 1995 brought the Isla Nublar incident and existence of Jurassic Park into the public eye, though he was widely discredited and dismissed as a conspiracy theorist. Nonetheless, Malcolm’s testimony likely brought stress to Sattler, being a recurring reminder of the traumatizing experience they had all undergone. This worsened in 1997 due to the San Diego incident, in which a buck tyrannosaur was accidentally loosed into a populated area and made worldwide news. The fact that the dinosaurs not only had survived but were being actively interfered with by humans sparked massive public interest, as well as controversy and debate. However, it did mean that Sattler was now essentially free to openly discuss the existence of de-extinction. There is currently no evidence that she did, though, and her colleague Grant was openly dismissive of de-extinction as a legitimate field of paleontological science. Public interest in traditional paleontology waned following 1997, though Sattler eventually began a new career writing nonfiction books about paleontology.

A few years after 1997,  Charlotte Lockwood met Dr. Ellie Sattler,  while lecturing at American universities. Charlotte, the daughter of InGen co-founder Benjamin Lockwood, ended up speaking with Dr. Sattler and the two scientists became friends. They shared many beliefs and values; Charlotte confided in Dr. Sattler her desire to have a child, but also her concerns that her child might not be healthy due to her genetic condition. Whether Dr. Sattler learned about Charlotte’s secret—that she had successfully cloned herself in 2007—remains unknown, but possible. The two scientists did not know each other long, as Charlotte passed away due to her genetic disorder in 2009, but Charlotte still made a major impact on Dr. Sattler both as a scientist and a person.

Marriage and family
Dr. Degler (2001)

Sometime between 1995 and 1998, Sattler began dating U.S. State Department official Mark Degler, and the two were married presumably sometime before 1998. She did not take her husband’s last name. They bore their first child, Charles “Charlie” Degler, sometime between July 17, 1997 and July 16, 1998. The Degler family resided in Washington, D.C. as of July 2001, remaining in contact with Grant as Dr. Sattler continued her career as a science communicator. She was assisted by an editor, Tom, with whom she apparently had creative and scientific disagreements.

In 2000 or 2001, the Deglers had a second child, whose name is currently undisclosed. An in-home secretary named Hannah assisted the Deglers with caring for their two children.

2001 incident

Dr. Sattler was briefly involved with the 2001 Isla Sorna incident. On July 16, Dr. Grant visited the Deglers while in Washington, D.C. to give a lecture on deinonychosaurs at Georgetown University; he returned to Fort Peck Lake, Montana the following day, and within twenty-four hours had become entangled with an international scandal involving the stranding of a young boy on Isla Sorna. On July 20 at approximately 8:00am EST (7:00am CST), an imperiled Dr. Grant contacted the Degler home phone from Isla Sorna, only managing to communicate that he was at the island’s central tidal river. Sattler immediately contacted her husband, who was able to negotiate the removal of civilians from Isla Sorna by both the United States Navy and Marine Corps.

Resumed work

Dr. Sattler gradually reentered the paleontological field. She remained out of the politics surrounding Jurassic World, which opened on May 30, 2005. One of her books (as presented in Ride canon) was Planting the Past, presumably a book on paleobotany and its importance as a reference tool for modern agriculture. This book can be seen in the queue area for Universal Studios’s VelociCoaster, suggesting it was written before 2015. Her publications were not limited to print books; unlike Dr. Grant, she was adept at online science communication. On December 21, 2015, she published a column in an online journal regarding her study of microfossils.

Jurassic World closed on December 22, 2015; over the next three years, debate raged surrounding what should be done regarding the animals, especially after volcanic activity began to threaten the island. The park’s former Operations Manager, a woman called Claire Dearing, founded the Dinosaur Protection Group to advocate for the animals’ rescue; however, strongly anti-environmental and anti-science figures had entered political power in the United States and even the President himself opposed the DPG as of 2018. In June that year, Isla Nublar experienced a devastating volcanic eruption, but the animals were not fully killed off: an illegal poaching operation had removed a number of animals from the abandoned park, bringing them to the Lockwood estate in Orick, California. Many were sold on the black market, but quite a few escaped into the wild, placing prehistoric animals directly in contact with humans around the world. Though Dr. Sattler had doubts that prehistoric life could truly integrate into the modern world, she did sympathize with their plight.

The late 2010s and early 2020s were a bizarre, hectic time in many ways, but the black-market trade of prehistoric life on a global scale combined with the presence of wild dinosaurs and other creatures in mainland North America (and, following the intentional and unintentional releases of animals from captivity, elsewhere in the world) kicked off an entire era of strangeness of its own kind. The United States government granted sole collection rights to wild dinosaurs to Biosyn Genetics, a company that had once rivaled InGen, and rumors begun in the 2020s that Charlotte Lockwood had cloned herself—and that the clone had vanished during the incident at Lockwood Manor in 2018. Of course, if Dr. Sattler had learned from Charlotte Lockwood about this rumor’s origin, she would have known about Charlotte’s illegal clone daughter Maisie, and the cutting-edge genetic science Charlotte had developed to cure Maisie of the genetic disorder they shared. A search for the missing Maisie Lockwood took place around the world, though the wider populace had no knowledge of why she was so valuable.

In Dr. Sattler’s own life, disruption came in a fashion more mundane, but more tragic. She and her husband started to experience marital difficulties at around the time both their children had gone off to college, and in the early 2020s they divorced. Using her work to distance herself from the unpleasantness, Dr. Sattler had become renowned as a consultant for agriculture and published a number of papers on the matter. She believed that by studying the patterns between prehistoric and modern ecology, especially where primary producers such as plants and algae were concerned, the many problems in modern agriculture could be solved. She studied soil science and paleoclimatology, comparing the ancient records she unearthed to modern-day climate change patterns. Her graduate students often accompanied her into the field, studying the effects of industrial farming on the environment. As modern ecosystems teetered toward collapse and the companies in charge of the world took little to no action, Dr. Sattler determinedly searched for any solutions that might mitigate the damage being caused. She became widely respected for her work, and without the pressures of a failing marriage, she was able to feel free and independent. By lecturing at a university in West Texas, she was able to encourage young adults to join in the fight for the world’s biosphere.

The case against Biosyn

Amidst her studies, Dr. Sattler learned about a strange species of enormous locust which had mysteriously appeared in the American Midwest where she conducted much of her research. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other government offices were ignoring the insects, more concerned with the collection of dinosaurs to be shipped to Biosyn Valley in the Italian Dolomites. Sattler took it upon herself to track the swarm. At first, there were only a few hundred of the insects, but their size (around a foot in length) meant that they could cause much more damage per individual than normal locusts. Their lifespan also proved surprisingly long: most locust species live for a few months, but these persisted for three or four times longer than that. Sattler followed the growth of a particular swarm from January until April 2022, noting patterns in their behavior that might help to prove where they came from. Her computer models indicated that the swarms’ growth was on a trajectory to eliminate not just crops, but swathes of grassland and forest on scales never before seen in human history. It would lead to untold ecological devastation, and possibly the collapse of modern civilization. But as she studied the locusts’ behavior, an even more disturbing pattern took shape. She began to notice that while the locusts devoured all crops in their path, there was one exception: they completely ignored crops grown from Biosyn seed.

Dr. Sattler performing field research in West Texas, 2022

Finally, she struck gold in her locust research. At the Peréz family farm in West Texas, a swarm of giant locusts had devoured nearly all the family’s wheat and corn, and the farm’s owner called Dr. Sattler after being dismissed by the government authorities. There, she and two of her graduate students saw the corn of a neighboring farm left in pristine condition, a sharp line with green crops on one side and barren soil on the other. She was informed by Ms. Peréz that the untouched farm grew Biosyn seed, much like all the other farms that had been spared. The connection between Biosyn and the locusts was clear as day, but the Peréz family had a far greater way to help her investigation: when the swarm had appeared, the Peréz children had managed to trap one of the insects and held it in a small animal carrier. In the farmhouse, Dr. Sattler used a field sequencer to take a DNA sample from the insect’s mouth. The results were shocking. While the locust appeared genetically related to the migratory locust, a common and well-known species, some of its genes came from another source—according to her field sequencer, the mystery genes had been extinct since the Maastrichtian age of the Cretaceous period, meaning someone had obtained them from the genome of a prehistoric locust species and inserted them into this new creature’s genome. This proved beyond a doubt that the insect was genetically engineered. However, to prove that Biosyn was behind it, she would need to find the source—obtain a locust gene sample directly from Biosyn’s headquarters. If the two samples were a match, Biosyn would be caught red-handed.

She was in luck in this respect. Evidently she was not the only person suspicious of Biosyn’s activities. Her old colleague, Dr. Ian Malcolm, had been working at Biosyn’s headquarters as a guest lecturer and recently messaged her on social media to formally invite her to tour the facility. She and the other Jurassic Park survivors were greatly admired by Biosyn’s CEO Lewis Dodgson, who approved the invitation from Malcolm, but the message Dr. Sattler received hinted that Malcolm had ulterior motives for inviting her. Suspecting that he knew something about the locusts, she accepted his invite and took the captured locust on a road trip to recruit one final ally: her old flame, Dr. Alan Grant.

Grant was working at a paleontological dig in the Utah badlands, a few hours’ drive north of the Peréz farm. She admired how he had continued his research in spite of everythingthe public had lost interest in paleontology years ago when de-extinction was revealed, and even after the closure of Jurassic World, many people (especially younger people) did not see any real value in digging up fossils anymore. Grant was reliable and loyal, traits that Dr. Sattler needed in anyone helping her make a case against Biosyn. Naturally, Dr. Grant was happy to see her again, and complimented her research in agriculture as giving the world some much-needed hope. He was more reluctant to go along with her to Biosyn Valley, having grown tired from the difficulties of the past few decades’ struggles; Sattler showed him her locust specimen, describing the alarming results of her models’ projections and the evidence that Biosyn was responsible. Ultimately, she succeeded in talking Dr. Grant into coming along, giving her a witness to whatever she discovered.

They departed Utah and flew to the U.S. Wildlife Relocation Facility in Pennsylvania, a layover on their trip to Italy. While at the facility, they were given a tour by a USFWS employee named Shira who described the paleoveterinary care they provided to the animals before sending them along their way. She also emphasized the high security of the facility, a necessary precaution against poachers. Among the dinosaurs bound for Biosyn Valley was a group of ceratopsians, including a juvenile Nasutoceratops that Dr. Sattler took a shine to; Shira explained how these animals had been rescued from an illegal breeding operation in Nevada a few weeks ago. The USFWS had received an anonymous tip about the operation and shut it down.

Biosyn Valley incident

After being treated as guests of honor during their layover, they departed aboard a Biosyn Whisperjet bound for Italy. The flight was several hours long, and they both slept along the way there; Dr. Sattler found Dr. Grant’s presence comfortable and familiar, a reminder of their youthful romance and a suggestion that perhaps ending it was a mistake. When they awoke, it was the beginning of a new day and they were almost to the valley. Upon landing at the Biosyn airfield just outside the valley’s imposing mountains, they disembarked and met with Ramsay Cole, who worked in Biosyn Communications and greatly admired Dr. Malcolm. He had, naturally, learned about Drs. Sattler and Grant too, and informed them that they were wildly famed at Biosyn for their past experiences. They traveled into the mountains on board a modified Eurocopter EC635 which took them across a frigid alpine reservoir and over a hydroelectric dam, then over the forested valley itself. As they flew, Dr. Grant sighted a gigantic Dreadnoughtus relaxing in one of the valley’s many ponds; Cole told them about how the animals were cared for and how operations in the valley worked. No people walked on the valley floor, instead transiting between the research outposts via an underground hyperloop network. If the animals needed to be moved, Biosyn had outfitted a neural implant in each of them that could stimulate their brains painlessly. For the most part, the valley was self-contained aside from the animals; an Aerial Deterrent System kept the pterosaurs from ascending more than five hundred feet above the ground, and no flora or fauna were imported to the valley other than a deer population maintained for the carnivores. This was of particular importance to the valley’s apex predator, a Giganotosaurus.

They landed in the valley’s dock and traveled into the headquarters itself, a sprawling ring-shaped complex of laboratories, staff housing, and communications centers. In the central courtyard they met Lewis Dodgson himself, receiving a warm welcome and posing for publicity pictures with him. After Dodgson left, Cole led them to the Brusatte Lecture Theatre where Dr. Malcolm was speaking about the ethics of genetic power. Despite his heavy criticism of genetic engineering, he was clearly much appreciated by the Biosyn staff. After his lecture, he signed copies of his book before leaving his fans to meet Drs. Sattler and Grant. Of the three, Grant was the only one without children; Dr. Malcolm’s progeny had grown from three to five since the last time they had met, and part of the reason he had taken the Biosyn job was to help support his family.

As they headed to the commissary, Dr. Malcolm listened to Dr. Sattler’s findings about the locusts, but seemed disinterested; he admitted that he agreed with her conclusions, but that the end of human civilization was inevitable and there was no sense in fighting it. This upset both Drs. Sattler and Grant, who had expected Dr. Malcolm to at least care about the millions facing starvation, but he simply offered them coffees. However, while Grant argued with the barista and the milk steamer was loudly at work, he quickly and quietly spoke to Dr. Sattler: he had heard about a program called Hexapod Allies a few weeks ago, learning that the locusts were part of it. They were bred in the laboratory marked L4 on Sublevel 6, and slipped Sattler a wristband to grant her access to the restricted area. As the milk steamer stopped, he pretended as though the conversation had been unrelated, returning to his faux-careless attitude. They parted ways for the meantime, and Sattler covertly explained to a confused Grant that they now had access to the arthropod lab.

Ramsay Cole continued leading them along their tour after they finished their refreshments, Sattler and Grant trying as much as possible to act normal. After touring the habitat development laboratory, where Cole showed them the recently-bred early tyrannosaur Moros intrepidus and confirmed that creating hybrid species was not part of the Biosyn ethos, he remarked that they were ahead of schedule and that the scientists could tour the facilities at their leisure if they so pleased. They accepted the offer, seeing an opportunity to sneak into Sublevel 6. Cole instructed them to meet him at Hyperloop Station 3 when they were ready to continue.

Left to their own devices, they donned Biosyn Hazmat suits from a decontamination room after the scientists changed shifts and the room was briefly unguarded. This enabled them to evade security. Sublevel 6, being restricted, had hardly any employees working on it; they reached L4 with ease and used the wristband to enter. Locating a mature locust, Sattler had Grant hold the large insect in place while she took a swab from its mouthparts, storing it alongside the sample she had taken from the wild locust. As they handled the insect, it became agitated and signaled to its fellows; within seconds, all of the insects in that section of the lab had become restless and skittish. Then, an alarm went off, sending all the locusts into a panic. Battered by the insects’ bulky bodies and not knowing whether the alarm meant they were caught, the scientists stumbled into the pressurization antechamber and managed to get out of the lab.

In the corridor outside, they unexpectedly encountered a childMaisie Lockwood, the supposed clone of Charlotte who had been on the news. Maisie recognized Drs. Sattler and Grant immediately, her grandfather Benjamin Lockwood having worked with John Hammond and taught Maisie all about Jurassic Park’s history. Apparently Maisie had been kidnapped by Biosyn for the secrets left embedded in her DNA by Charlotte curing her disease, and like the scientists, was now trying to make her escape. They took her along with them, heading for the nearest hyperloop station. There they were met by Cole, and at first hid Maisie while pretending that they had gotten lost; Cole, however, hurriedly revealed that Dr. Sattler had been right about the locust plague being Biosyn’s fault and that he was on their side. Malcolm had not found out about Hexapod Allies on his ownCole had told him, and had orchestrated this entire plot to expose Biosyn.

He sent the three of them on the hyperloop’s Pod A-7 toward the airfield, a path which took them underneath the mountains. On the way, Dr. Sattler told Maisie about Charlotte, comforting the young girl. Maisie had never really met her mother, since Charlotte died while Maisie was too young to remember; now, learning about her from Dr. Sattler, she was able to feel more connected to her. Sattler described Charlotte’s love and desire for Maisie to live a full life, a love strong enough that she was willing to sacrifice her own life for it.

As they traveled, the hyperloop pod suddenly shut down, and slowed to a halt at the nearest station. This turned out to be an entrance to the amber mines beneath the Dolomites, the reason Biosyn had originally purchased the valley from the Italian government. Maisie was hesitant to go out into the darkness of the mines, but Dr. Grant convinced her to leave the disabled pod and search for another way out, complimenting Dr. Sattler’s reliability in the process. The journey underground was claustrophobic and not without the possibility of hazards; Sattler began to regret bringing Grant into potential danger, but he interrupted her, admitting that he had been unhappy in his lonely life before she came back. Maisie began to suspect that the two scientists had a romantic history, but for the time being they denied being more than old friends.

Eventually, Sattler noticed a current of fresh air blowing through the caves. The wind had to be entering the tunnels from somewhere, so they followed the breeze to a ladder. Biosyn had obviously installed it, so there was probably an exit built someplace ahead. Wary of the sound of falling rocks not too far away, Grant ascended the ladder. Sattler handed him their makeshift torch, but as he illuminated the upper ledge, he suddenly let out a shout and fell from the ladder. An animal sound accompanied this. While Sattler quickly looked him over to ensure his head was not too seriously hurt from where it hit the cave floor, the source of the animal noise made itself apparent: they had disturbed a carnivorous quadruped, a Dimetrodon, that had been atop the ledgeand it was not alone. Another of the animals was drawn to the commotion. At first they tried to defend themselves, but the aggravated carnivores were determined, and instead the three were forced to abandon the ladder and flee down a different tunnel.

Although the animals were slow, they knew their subterranean habitat well and proved impossible to lose. The three came to an exit, but found it gated shut and electronically locked. Malcolm, arriving at the mine entrance behind the wheel of a Jeep Gladiator, tried to guess the code; meanwhile, a couple of the Dimetrodons tried to attack. They were only separated from the vulnerable three humans by a mine cart loaded with old debris. Grant and Maisie tried to fend off the animals while all three of them engaged the mine cart’s brakes, keeping them from being crushed against the gate. After a short but agonizing time, the gate unlocked, and they escaped, shutting and locking the gate again before any Dimetrodons could get out after them. Relieved to be out, they started the drive out of the valley.

They had only made it a few minutes, though, before something more alarming came into view. It was not Biosyn security forces, nor an angry dinosaur: a massive cloud of fire was crossing the night sky. As Dr. Sattler looked at it, she realized what it wasa swarm of locusts, one of the biggest she had ever seen, all on fire. She pieced together what had happened. Knowing that he was in danger of being found out, Dodgson had probably tried to destroy the evidence by incinerating it. Now, the insects were raining down upon the valley as they burned to death. One landed on the hood of the vehicle, obscuring Malcolm’s view. He nearly drove them over an embankment, and despite their attempts to stabilize the vehicle on the edge of the hill, it tumbled down and settled upside-down near Research Outpost 04.

Thankfully no one was seriously injured, and as they recovered from the accident, Maisie spotted three people also near the outpost. Two of them were her adoptive parents, the DPG founder Claire Dearing and former InGen animal trainer Owen Grady. The third was a pilot, Kayla Watts. Maisie was joyfully reuinted with her parents, who (with Watts’s aid) had infiltrated the valley to rescue her. The rescuers had been in the process of trying to break into the outpost when the accident took place, but before they could resume, a gigantic creature emerged from the forest: the Giganotosaurus they had learned about from Cole during their flight in. The dinosaur approached, and the humans went on the defensive. Watts led the charge up the ladder, with Maisie narrowly avoiding an attack from the Giganotosaurus. Everyone except Malcolm made it to the platform, and Malcolm distracted the dinosaur while Watts got the outpost door open with a crowbar. Malcolm rejoined them, and Grady helped Sattler evade the dinosaur as it tore part of the exterior catwalk. They all scrambled inside the outpost. The animal rammed its head through the glass, nearly catching Dearing, but everyone was able to fight the creature off and it left to find easier prey.

Having survived the attack, everyone in the group made better introductions. They could not contact anyone by phone, since the whole facility was going into emergency lockdown as the burning locusts sparked wildfires across the valley, so instead they made for the hyperloop tunnels, which connected all the facilities. This way, they reached the main headquarters without further impediment. In the control tower, they found that the staff were already fully evacuated; at the moment it was impossible to safely evacuate by air due to the ADS being shut down. The computer system was displaying Error 99, and as they were joined by Ramsay Cole again, he explained that this error meant there was not enough power to keep all the valley’s systems running. Dealing with the wildfire and evacuation protocols was taxing the power network too much. All available power was seized by the main system, which they would have to bypass in order to reactivate the ADS.

To accomplish this, Sattler and Dearing went down to Server Room 3, guided via handheld radio by Cole and Dr. Malcolm while the other group members went out on other tasks. On the way, Sattler and Dearing found that they had much in common; both had survived terrible disasters, and both were deeply concerned with protecting their children’s future against the catastrophes now enveloping the world. Sattler, older and wiser than Dearing, gave her advice on moving forward, and admitted that she too was still dealing with trauma from her experiences. Soon they came to the server room, finding a broken vent leading outside and smoldering locusts dropping to the floor through it. Carefully making their way among the dying insects, Cole and Malcolm instructed them on how to shut down the primary system. Once they had done so, power was rerouted to the ADS, but the primary system automatically rebooted itself. Neither Cole nor Malcolm had expected this, so they had to come up with a new plan on the fly. As the sound of the rebooting computers startled the locusts into one final frenzied flight, Sattler and Dearing fought their way through the swarm, Dearing retrieving an emergency fire ax with which to sever the servers’ power cables. By making the power reroute reliant upon hardware rather than software, they succeeded in restoring the ADS.

Returning to the upper floor of the headquarters, they regrouped with the others. Grant, Grady, and Maisie had retrieved the baby raptor, Beta, which Biosyn had also taken. They found themselves joined by an unexpected ninth person: Henry Wu, the man behind the genetic engineering revolutions of the past few decades. The hybrid locusts were his fault, and Sattler called him out on it directly. Wu did not reject her accusation, but merely pleaded for their help in evacuating so that he could put a stop to the crisis he had helped create. Maisie convinced the group to take him along, saying it was what Charlotte would have done in her place.

Watts had one of the Biosyn Eurocopters in the air, but could not land in the valley due to the wildfire; instead, she was forced to land in the courtyard. Unfortunately, this was a part of the evacuation route for the dinosaurs, which were being herded via their neural implants into an emergency containment bunker within the mountain. Sattler and the others went out to board, avoiding dinosaurs along the way, but were stopped by one far more familiar than the others: InGen’s original Tyrannosaurus, who Sattler had faced nearly thirty years prior. Moments later, the Giganotosaurus also entered the scene, and as the two carnivores sized each other up, the humans scattered. Sattler took a route for the helicopter along with Drs. Grant, Malcolm, and Wu. They managed to avoid the clash between the two giant theropods, though Wu was injured when the tyrannosaur was thrown to the ground nearby; Sattler and the others helped him to his feet. They made it to the helicopter without further issue, but the other half of their group was trapped. The tyrannosaur had been thrown nearly on top of them, landing on one of the courtyard’s decorative sculptures. If they stayed put, the combined weight of both dinosaurs could break the sculpture and crush them; if they ran, the Giganotosaurus would see them. Sattler tried to come to their rescue, but the gigantic predator’s attention was now on her. The tyrannosaur, meanwhile, was motionless.

To distract the theropod, Kayla Watts fired a flare from the helicopter. Incidentally, a third theropod had entered the courtyard along the evacuation route, this one a herbivore with enormous claws called Therizinosaurus. The flare landed near it, and the Giganotosaurus went to confront this new enemy. Now free to escape, the rest of the evacuees fled to the helicopter and boarded, taking to the air as a thunderstorm rolled in. Below them the tyrannosaur recovered, having been knocked unconscious but not dead, and with aid from the herbivore brought down the Giganotosaurus. Rain began to fall, and the flames were gradually extinguished.

After the incident

Dr. Sattler had survived a second brush with death, decades after her first, but the outcome of this one was different. This had been no escapade in a secret facility, buried for years beneath nondisclosure agreements. This time, she was able to give an account of what she had seen directly to the authorities at the Biosyn airstrip the following morning. As paramedics treated their injuries and government officials heard their statements, Sattler planned to get the DNA samples to her university’s lab before giving the story to a contact she had at the New York Times. Soon, the whole world would learn of what Biosyn had done. Ramsay Cole and Dr. Malcolm would join them in breaking the story. She was also glad to hear that Dr. Grant, rather than simply return to his dig site, planned to come with her on her mission. They kissed for the first time in several decades.

The events that happened in Biosyn Valley had major ramifications for the wider world. Lewis Dodgson had disappeared during the incident, but investigators probably discovered his remains in a stalled hyperloop pod where he had died alone. Ramsay Cole, now a high-profile whistleblower, testified before the United States Congress about corruption in Biosyn’s executive ranks. Accompanying him were Drs. Sattler, Malcolm, and Grant, traveling to Washington, D.C. in order to present their eyewitness testimonies before the government. Henry Wu had been able to synthesize a cure for the locust plague, spreading a modification to the insects that would reduce their lifespan and fecundity; before long, the swarms were expected to die out. There was already talk of using the methods he had introduced to the wider world to treat human diseases, but Wu surprisingly did not take credit for himself; he attributed his success to Charlotte Lockwood. Maisie and her family, meanwhile, were able to live in peace, no longer needing to hide. The dinosaurs, too, quickly came under United Nations protection when Biosyn fell into turmoil. The valley remained a preserve where any of the animals who could not adapt to the modern world would be safe.

As for Dr. Sattler, she continues her work in paleobotany, learning about the past in order to protect the future. She is accompanied by Dr. Grant, who remains her reliable ally, the two scientists very much in love.

Skills
Botany

Dr. Sattler is a paleobotanist, studying prehistoric plant species from fossil remains. Her expertise also extends to general botany, as she has a significant body of knowledge regarding contemporary plant biology. She is particularly knowledgeable in the fields of pharmacology and toxicology, identifying poisonous plants at a glance as well as their symptoms in animals. While on Isla Nublar, she was able to immediately identify both a de-extinct veriforman (which had been extinct for more than sixty-five million years) and the contemporary West Indian lilac bush, neither of which were native to the island.

Her knowledge of botany has expanded as her career has advanced. In the present day, she is widely renowned as an expert on soil science, and she is able to consult on agricultural practices. She has studied the fossil record in combination with the modern-day terrestrial and marine ecosystems in order to find solutions to the numerous problems the agricultural sector faces (and causes) today, such as climate change, disease, and soil nutrient depletion.

The game LEGO Jurassic World portrays her as a skilled gardener.

Paleontology

In addition to botanical knowledge, Dr. Sattler’s studies include other aspects of paleoecology such as vertebrate paleontology. Her colleague and romantic partner Dr. Alan Grant is a respected vertebrate paleontologist with a remarkable body of knowledge regarding deinonychosaurian paleobiology and theropod evolution, and during the 1990s the two worked together at dig sites in Montana where Cretaceous dinosaur fossils are highly abundant. She has researched microfossils, a subject which is still relatively new and unknown, as of late 2015.

One of the more advanced fields of paleontology she participates in is paleogenetics. When species become extinct, they take with them unique genes; by comparing the differences in the genomes of modern species, one can determine their evolutionary relationships, such as how long ago they diverged. Sattler’s expertise in paleogenetics may have been partly inspired by the de-extinction of plant species by International Genetic Technologies, but she has also applied this science to animals, which proved immensely useful during the hybrid locust plague of 2022. Using a field sequencer, she was able to determine that the hybrid locust’s genome included genes which had gone extinct in the Cretaceous period, meaning that the insects were not naturally-occurring and had been deliberately engineered. This was a major step forward in determining the responsible party and bringing them to justice.

Pharmacology

Dr. Sattler’s understanding of plant biology gives her some insight into pharmacology as it applies to plants; many plant species have medical effects when consumed or touched. Some of these can be quite significant, even fatal under particular conditions. During the 1993 incident, she was able to immediately discern the symptoms of a sick Triceratops as pharmacological in nature, which even the Park’s trained veterinary staff had dismissed as impossible. Later during the incident, she was able to successfully administer morphine to a wounded Dr. Ian Malcolm.

The game Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis portrays her as having extensive knowledge of animal health beyond simply plant-related pharmacology, including viral, bacterial, and parasitic diseases.

Physical ability

During her paleontological career, Dr. Sattler worked extensively in the field and so had considerable athletic ability. She demonstrated this well during the 1993 incident, and these abilities likely saved her life following the Velociraptor escape. She spent many years away from fieldwork beginning a couple years after the incident, but by 2022 had returned to work, often traversing rough terrain in search of data.

She is sometimes seen wearing reading glasses, but does not need them for fieldwork. This suggests that she is slightly farsighted, needing corrective lenses to discern fine details in nearby objects, but is capable of seeing close objects in enough detail to perform more general paleontological work without them.

Authorship and public speaking

Along with her scientific skills, Dr. Sattler has experience authoring nonfiction books, especially those aimed at educating younger audiences. She was in the process of publishing a book as of 2001, despite disagreements with her editor. This book contained a quote from renowned paleontologist Dr. Jack Horner, which Dr. Sattler was intent on keeping in the book in spite of her editor’s suggestion to cut it.

At least one of her books was entitled Planting the Past. She wrote this sometime in the 2010s, probably before 2015, by which time she was also publishing online. Her column in an e-journal on microfossils was greatly respected by the paleontological community as well as general science enthusiasts. By the early 2020s, she had begun lecturing at a university in West Texas. Her drive to better the world through understanding it, as well as her anti-establishment attitude, made her popular not just among her own students but local people as well. Independent farmers in the area were known to consult her knowledge when they experienced problems with plant agriculture, and she would do her best to help them.

Skill with children

Even during her early scientific career, Dr. Sattler was skilled at working with children and expressed the desire to be a parent in the future. As of 2001, she had two children; her oldest, Charlie, already had an interest in dinosaurs which his mother encouraged. By all accounts, Dr. Sattler has good parenting and childhood education skills, which also benefit her career as an education writer. Even now that both of her children are grown up, she is very good at teaching younger children about science in a way they can understand without any hint of being condescending toward them. She is also an empathetic person, readily willing to listen and understand what other people are experiencing emotionally, which helps.

She also has experience as a pet owner, having raised a blue-and-yellow macaw named Jack since at least 1995. This species requires much effort and time to properly raise, but Jack appeared very healthy and well-behaved as of 2001, so Dr. Sattler clearly is exceptional with pets as well as children. Raising Jack may have given her some early experience that helped her as a parent later.

Driving

As of 2001, Dr. Sattler owned a minivan of currently unknown make and model, separate from the 2000 Cadillac Catera driven by her husband. This means that she possessed a valid U.S. driver’s license as of July 2001. In 2022, she owned a 1994 Chevrolet S-10 Blazer that she used to drive to and from fieldwork locations. The vehicle’s age and condition suggest that this was not university-issue, but was a vehicle she personally owned. She is skilled at driving even on dirt roads, since much of her fieldwork takes place in rural or undeveloped areas.

Views
Political views

In general, Dr. Sattler’s politics fall squarely on the left side of the political spectrum, and can be described as vehemently anti-corporate. She has ill feelings about big business in general, especially agribusiness, and blames the greed of megacorporations and the billionaires who run them for the bulk of the modern world’s ecological problems. Sattler’s views on this have hardened due to decades of witnessing various parts of Earth’s biosphere trampled and destroyed in the name of corporate profits.

On de-extinction

While Dr. Sattler was astounded at the idea of de-extinction being possible, she expressed during the 1993 incident that such an attempt to control the natural world was ill-advised due to a lack of scientific discipline exercised by InGen. Without an appropriately large body of knowledge on their organisms, InGen was incapable of providing for their needs, resulting in maladaptive behaviors in the animals and widespread health issues in the ecosystem at large.

Beyond the 1993 incident, Dr. Sattler has not made any known public statements regarding de-extinction. In a private meeting with Dr. Grant in 2001, she admitted to attempting to forget the vocalizations produced by InGen’s Velociraptors due to the associated trauma, but this is not necessarily indicative of any ill feelings toward de-extinct life on the whole. In the same conversation, she still expressed fascination toward the animals when learning about Dr. Grant’s new discoveries regarding raptor intelligence. This appears to sum up her attitude toward de-extinction overall; she has serious doubts that de-extinct life can properly find a place in modern ecosystems, especially with human activity increasingly encroaching on the natural world, but continues to treat the animals with respect regardless of their origin.

On scientific discipline

Dr. Sattler is a proponent of the precautionary principle, and was accused by John Hammond as harboring Luddite sentiments. However, Sattler’s cautionary approach to new scientific advancements are not as extreme as true Neo-Luddism, and are considerably less conservative than the statements made at the same time by Dr. Ian Malcolm. When in the field, she uses rigorous scientific methodology to find solutions to problems, and embraces the use of new technology to forward her research. She is not one to give up easily; her colleagues have described her as “tenacious.”

Dr. Sattler also wants science to be accessible to people of all ages and backgrounds, and treats blue-collar laypeople with the same level of respect as fellow academics. The only people she has no patience with are those who want to exploit scientific discoveries and the natural world for profit: she has developed a tough anti-establishment stance over the years and vocally opposes the big agribusiness corporations who cause many of the problems her research is aiming to solve. She is in science to make the world safer and more equitable for people and wildlife alike, and this goal outweighs any concerns about making a name for herself or gaining favor with the existing power structure.

On ecology

As a paleobotanist, Dr. Sattler developed a considerable understanding of the role plants serve in any ecosystem. She disapproves of the idea that plants are passive members of the ecosystem, arguing instead in favor of the view of plants as active participants in ecology. She also cautions against any presumption that humans can fully understand the needs of an ecosystem, or that it is possible for a civilization to control nature on the whole. Influencing nature is quite possible, but seldom goes according to plan; before she knew that the hybrid locust plague of the early 2020s was an agribusiness scheme gone haywire, she speculated that it may have been a result of megacorporations attempting to exterminate insect life.

While she certainly does appreciate animals, she was the only member of the 1993 InGen endorsement group to make note of the poisonous plants used by InGen to decorate facilities in Jurassic Park. Even experienced veterinarians such as Dr. Gerry Harding dismissed the possibility that animals could be consuming poisonous plants in their environments, which Dr. Sattler immediately realized upon observing the symptoms of a sick Triceratops. Her career has gone on to apply her discoveries in paleobotany to modern agriculture. Studies into the evolution of ecosystems over time allows her to predict future change using computational models, indicating ways in which climate trends could impact the viability of plant life and the ecology plants support. Success with these models has led to Dr. Sattler being widely recognized and respected in her field; she is often consulted for advice on topics such as regenerative farming.

On marriage and family

As early as 1993, the primary conflict in the relationship between Drs. Sattler and Grant was the idea of getting married and having children. Sattler was interested in a traditional domestic life, while Grant was disinterested in children and wanted to focus on his paleontological career as an independent adult. Though the 1993 incident resulted in Grant committing to changing his views on children, their relationship still ended, possibly due in part to his reluctance about starting a family.

Eventually, Sattler would marry Mark Degler of the U.S. State Department, having two children with him (but not taking his last name, a common practice in female science professionals). She valued fostering a healthy interest in science in her children, and by the age of three, her eldest child Charlie was very interested in dinosaurs. This was helped by visits from Dr. Grant, who by that point in time was much more comfortable around children and enjoyed furthering Charlie’s interest in dinosaurs. As of 2001, the Deglers employed an in-home childcare provider named Hannah to help care for their children while they were at work, but were still active in raising their children themselves. However, their marriage did not last; over time Dr. Sattler came to feel stifled and restricted, and after her divorce in early 2022, she described the feeling of independence as freeing. She still loved and supported her children as much as ever. Eventually, she found her way back to Alan Grant, and their romance was quickly rekindled; they are now in a relationship again, twenty-seven years later.

On feminism

Paleontology on the whole is a male-dominated field, and was even more so during the 1980s and 1990s when Dr. Sattler began her scientific career. In order to become as successful a scientist as she was, a defiance of stereotypes was necessary. Both Drs. Grant and Malcolm noted her “tenacious” attitude and rigorous dedication to scientific fieldwork. This does not mean she eschews femininity by any means, simply that she believes these two things are only considered disparate by way of societal tradition and that they can coexist without any personal difficulty.

She has expressed feminist views in conversation, though she is not overtly involved in politics. She humorously teased Dr. Malcolm’s use of the word “man” to mean “humans,” and coined the term “sexism in survival situations” in response to Hammond’s insistence that she remain in the safety of the bunker while Hammond go with Muldoon to restore power to the Park.

While Dr. Sattler was in a traditional marriage with two children, she did not conform to the role of a housewife; she wrote and still writes nonfiction books on paleontology, keeping a steady career in science despite leaving academia for a period of time. During their marriage, Sattler did not take her husband’s last name. This is common among female scientists in order to avoid confusion in the professional publishing world. She also maintains a sense of independence: she is unafraid of disagreeing with her editor Tom when she feels that he oversteps his area of expertise, and still had a healthy friendship with Dr. Grant despite being married to someone else.

When their marriage eventually began to deteriorate, Dr. Sattler and Mark Degler divorced; while Dr. Sattler was saddened and emotionally drained by it, she celebrated her ability to live freely without the pressure of a failing marriage. After a short time, she reconnected with Alan Grant, finding him much the same as she had last left him, though older and more tired. Where Dr. Sattler was enjoying independence, Dr. Grant found it lonely. Before long they resumed their relationship. Grant is nothing but supportive of Sattler and greatly respects her dedication, empathy, and scientific brilliance. Sattler, a woman who very much knows her own worth, can in turn appreciate the support and respect she gets from Grant and return the feelings. Their relationship is based on this healthy foundation and allows them both to lift each other up.

Relationships
Dr. Alan Grant

As of June 1993, Dr.  Sattler was in a long-term romantic relationship with her colleague, vertebrate paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant. The two shared both their domestic and professional lives, cooperating on paleontological digs despite having markedly different paleobiological fields of expertise. Presumably, their differing studies would have benefited both of their careers and the results of their expeditions. Sattler and Grant did not express much outward affection in public, however, leading to some (such as Dr. Ian Malcolm) to not immediately realize they were in a relationship. Sattler enjoyed provoking Grant’s jealousy and otherwise teasing him, though she was a faithful partner in practice.

Not all aspects of their relationship were harmonious, however. While Sattler was interested in getting married and having children, Grant intended to focus on his career, and until the 1993 incident had no interest in children at all. Even after the incident changed his perspective on children, he and Sattler still experienced relationship difficulties for various reasons, likely including the differing ways they dealt with their trauma after the incident. After 1993, their romantic relationship ended, though they remained close friends. Some earlier versions of film scripts suggest that their relationship ended officially in 1995, and that they may not have seen one another for some time immediately afterward. After Sattler married into the Degler family, she and Grant kept in touch; Grant was on friendly terms with her husband Mark Degler and helped foster her son Charlie’s interest in dinosaurs. As of 2001, they still visited one another, and Dr. Sattler considered Dr. Grant to be one of the best scientists in his field.

Over time, they drifted apart, and Sattler returned to the field. Her marriage with Degler eventually ended after the relationship began to feel suffocating; she enjoyed a refreshing sense of independence after the divorce, favorably comparing her new life to Grant’s. When they reconnected, she found him reliably just the same man she had last seen many years ago, if only less youthful. Although Grant was resigned to his quiet life, which he found lonely rather than freeing, Sattler convinced him to come along on one last mission: to prove that Biosyn was the perpetrator behind an ecological crisis. Reluctantly at first, Grant agreed. On their journey, Sattler found in Grant a sense of stability amidst a world that had grown ever more unpredictable and chaotic both on the global and personal scales. By the end, they both admitted that they had never truly forgotten the feelings they had shared so many years ago; working together had helped them remember what they loved about each other, and after the mission was complete, they resumed their relationship.

Paleontological coworkers

At their dig sites, Drs. Sattler and Grant would be accompanied by numerous other paleontologists and volunteers; these would sometimes include the children of said personnel. For the most part, their relationships with Dr. Sattler are not known.

In one of her 2001 books, Dr. Sattler featured a Jack Horner quote, implying some form of professional relationship between them. Her longtime partner and colleague Dr. Grant is known to follow Dr. Horner’s teachings and is associated with the Museum of the Rockies along with Dr. Horner, so it is feasible that Dr. Sattler knows him personally.

Upon her return to fieldwork, Dr. Sattler was again accompanied by colleagues during work. She lectures at a university in West Texas, and both during university-sponsored research and independent work she often brings graduate students out with her. Two in particular helped her investigate the hybrid locust plague in 2022, which does not seem to have been done on the university’s time or resources. Sattler’s dedication to researching real and achievable solutions as well as her anti-establishment attitude make her popular among younger people, and her students are clearly more than willing to help her achieve her goals.

Degler family

As of 2001, Dr. Sattler lived in Washington, D.C. with her husband Mark Degler, her two children, and pet blue-and-gold macaw Jack. Her oldest child, Charlie, was born in either late 1997 or early 1998, suggesting that Ellie and Mark were married by 1997 and likely knew one another for some time prior to this. A second child, whose name is not currently known, was born in either 2000 or 2001. Domestic life in the Degler household appeared to be stable and content as of 2001, with clear signs of financial stability and trust of one another.

Dr. Sattler’s pet macaw Jack had been with her since at least 1995 according to older Jurassic Park /// scripts, making him the family member who she had been with the longest. Jack had been around when she was still in a relationship with Dr. Grant. She is clearly a very good caretaker to Jack, who belongs to a species that requires much effort to properly raise; Jack was in excellent health and was very well-behaved as of 2001.

She divorced Mark Degler by early 2022, and although details about it are not public, she described attaining a newfound sense of independence and freedom. She also had developed a tendency to stop herself when speaking passionately about something she cared about, anticipating that her conversational partner may not be interested or engaged. Her changed behaviors suggest some of the reasons her marriage may have ended. Although she and her ex-husband do not seem to have much contact after the divorce, she is still proud and supportive of her children, who by that time were both in college.

John Hammond and InGen

While Dr. Sattler’s relationship with InGen personnel was brief, it was impactful. InGen CEO at the time John Parker Alfred Hammond funded her paleontological research by extent of funding Grant’s, though Hammond was not familiar with Sattler. Despite Grant being the primary recipient of Hammond’s funding and invitation to Jurassic Park in 1993, Hammond happily extended the invitation to Sattler upon meeting her, acknowledging her expertise as a paleobotanist. He would be dismissive of her survival abilities later in the incident, but did not protest any further when she pointed out how sexism would not benefit them in a survival scenario. Hammond from that point on supported her attempt to restart the Park.

Other InGen employees who Dr. Sattler met during the incident included geneticist Dr. Henry Wu, who she met only briefly; veterinarian Dr. Gerry Harding, who she worked with on a sick Triceratops; technician Ray Arnold, whose remains were discovered by Sattler following his death; and park warden Robert Muldoon, who overall was the most respectful of Sattler’s survival abilities and trusted her to go out into the field on two separate occasions. Muldoon in particular died while protecting Dr. Sattler from Velociraptors. Dr. Sattler never met programmer Dennis Nedry, but his act of sabotage did endanger her along with everyone else on the island at the time. It is not known if Dr. Sattler stayed in contact with Hammond or anyone else from InGen after the incident.

The company, of course, went on without her input. Efforts to open a park in spite of the disaster continued, and eventually revealed de-extinction to the public. A few years after John Hammond died, Dr. Sattler met a former InGen scientist named Charlotte Lockwood with whom she struck up a friendship. Charlotte was the daughter of Benjamin Lockwood, a British businessman who had partnered with John Hammond before the two had a falling-out in the 1990s. While much of InGen’s resources were devoted to genetic engineering for a de-extinction park (which did successfully open in 2005), Charlotte was more interested in using that technology to cure disease and save lives. She confided in Dr. Sattler her desire to have a child; it is possible Sattler may even have known about Charlotte’s secret success at cloning herself, creating a daughter named Maisie Lockwood. Unfortunately, Charlotte passed away due to a genetic disorder in 2009, having managed to cure Maisie of the same disease using cutting-edge methods.

InGen’s success at Jurassic World was not to last, and the park closed in 2015 after a major security incident. The company has struggled ever since, and many of its employees have scattered to the winds. Sattler would encounter Henry Wu one more time in 2022, the renowned geneticist having spent years drifting from one employer to another, each more unscrupulous than the last; at Biosyn Genetics, he was responsible for engineering a hybrid locust that ended up causing untold damages to the world’s agriculture. Wu, repentant, was able to end the locust plague after leaving Biosyn and exposing himself to the authorities. Sattler was a part of the team that helped him escape and finish the job.

Dr. Ian Malcolm and the endorsement tour group

While on the Jurassic Park endorsement tour, Dr. Sattler became acquainted with John Hammond’s two grandchildren, Lex and Tim Murphy. She encouraged the children, particularly Lex, to interact with Dr. Grant in the hopes that they would change his views on having children; this attempt was more or less successful, but only due to the incident separating Grant and the children from the others on Isla Nublar. While the three were marooned in the Park, Dr. Sattler worried constantly for their safety and was highly protective of them once they reunited.

The other two members of the Jurassic Park endorsement tour included legal consultant Donald Gennaro and mathematician Dr. Ian Malcolm. During the tour, Dr. Sattler became friendly with Dr. Malcolm, who acted flirtatiously toward her; however, Malcolm eventually discovered that she was in a relationship with Dr. Grant, and did not act flirtatious during the incident that followed the partial tour. Sattler did not make any effort to discourage Malcolm from flirting and eagerly joined in, knowing that it would irritate Grant; she enjoyed teasing him. Sattler did not interact much with Gennaro during the tour, though she was present to recover some of his remains following the first tyrannosaur attack. She also was instrumental in the rescue of Dr. Malcolm from the same scene, along with Robert Muldoon; they brought him back to the Visitors’ Centre where he could be administered morphine and treated for his injuries. Together, they escaped the island, with Sattler playing a major role alongside Grant in protecting the Murphy children as they evaded danger.

Sattler remained in touch with Dr. Malcolm after the incident, and possibly the Murphy children. Even after she and Grant ended their relationship, she regularly talked with Malcolm about scientific issues where they had a common interest; as they grew older, the problems facing the world became more evident. Sattler focused on using her knowledge of ancient plant life to predict future trends in a changing climate, and Malcolm became a vocal opponent of unchecked genetic power. Eventually, Malcolm came to work at Biosyn Genetics as a lecturer, and learned of the company’s role in causing an ecological crisis; having kept up with Dr. Sattler’s work in agriculture and ecology, he contacted her. She had also begun to realize that Biosyn was behind the crisis, and she and Dr. Grant were invited to the Biosyn Sanctuary where she continued her secret investigation. Malcolm ultimately sacrificed his career at Biosyn to do so, but the company fell into disarray not long after when Dr. Sattler revealed the evidence she had collected. Malcolm not only aided Sattler in getting that evidence and escaping Biosyn Valley alive, he also helped her in a more personal way: he gave her a reason to get back in contact with her old flame Dr. Alan Grant, leading to the two of them reforming their romantic relationship.

Biosyn Genetics

A major rival to InGen during the de-extinction arms race, Biosyn Genetics was given sole collection rights by the United States government to de-extinct animals after they were released into the wild and the black market in 2018. There was always some suspicion that the company had ulterior motives, despite CEO Lewis Dodgson‘s assurances that Biosyn was a progressive company with human interest at heart. Sattler, having lived through InGen’s negligence years ago, was already on the side of the skeptics.

When a swarm of alarmingly large locusts appeared in the American Midwest in the early 2020s, Sattler diligently began tracking their trail of decimation in order to find out what had caused the plague. She noticed a sinister trend: the insects were eating nearly all the plants in their path, but were totally ignoring Biosyn crops. Biosyn’s subsidiary, NutriSyn, was a major player in agribusiness and would surely benefit from having their competitors wiped out by what appeared to be a natural disaster. Sattler, suspecting Biosyn was complicit, investigated; she eventually got word from her colleague Dr. Ian Malcolm, who had been following her scientific publications on agriculture, that he could invite her to Biosyn’s headquarters and that there were things she should see there.

Biosyn, none the wiser, permitted her and Dr. Alan Grant to come tour the valley. They were flown there on one of Biosyn’s many transport planes, and upon arrival, they were greeted by Biosyn Communications administrator Ramsay Cole. He was clearly an admirer of Dr. Malcolm, and informed them about the valley’s scientific practices and some of the animals that lived there. At the headquarters, Lewis Dodgson himself was glad to see these preeminent scientists and described his desire to research the animals for all manner of biopharmaceutical purposes; he had hope that they could cure the world’s most devastating diseases with medicine derived from prehistoric creatures.

Although everyone at Biosyn seemed welcoming and humanitarian, Dr. Sattler remained skeptical that there was trouble beneath the surface. After meeting with Dr. Malcolm, who pretended to be uncaring about the crisis but ultimately used the cover of a loud coffee machine and Grant arguing with a barista to tell Sattler how to proceed, she was given the opportunity to tour the facility without supervision by Cole. He told them where to meet in half an hour for transport, and she and Dr. Grant snuck away into the restricted area to obtain a DNA sample from a locust.

When they met Cole at the hyperloop station, he quickly revealed that Dodgson was indeed covering up his complicity in the locust plague. The young man was on their side, a whistleblower willing to sacrifice his career to bring Dodgson to justice for the harm he had caused. Ensuring they had the DNA sample, he sent them on their way, keeping tabs on their progress as they fled. Their hyperloop pod was deliberately stalled, Dodgson having learned from his head of security that Malcolm had aided Sattler and Grant in discovering the locust lab; Cole ultimately sent Malcolm to rescue them from the Dimetrodon-infested amber mines and remotely entered the code for the mine gate. Dodgson further tried to cover his tracks by burning the evidence, lighting all the locusts on fire to incinerate them; before the process was done, the insects managed to get free and fled from the searing heat. This sent them into the valley, where they started forest fires as they fell dead from the sky.

Once Sattler and her allies had made it back to the headquarters, Cole rejoined them. The wildfire was taxing the valley’s power system, and in order to get out, they needed to reroute power to the Aerial Deterrent System. Cole guided Sattler and her companion Claire Dearing into the server room where they, with some struggle, managed to cut power to the primary system and activate the ADS. This allowed them to safely evacuate the valley.

Sattler’s evidence spelled disaster for Biosyn, but the locust plague was ended thanks to a repentant Henry Wu, who joined them as they escaped the headquarters. Dodgson had died during the disaster and so could never be truly brought to justice, but anyone else in the company’s ranks who was complicit would face consequences. Cole’s whistleblower testimony was supported by Dr. Sattler before the United States Congress.

According to Jurassic World: Evolution 2, Drs. Sattler and Grant remained trusted allies to Ramsay Cole after this. Cole, in the game, takes on a leadership position at Biosyn to aid in rooting out corruption and providing stability for the employees who stayed with Biosyn after many of the company’s executives were fired and jailed. Sattler in particular advised Cole while he oversaw the cleanup after the wildfire, using her botanical expertise to direct the ecological restoration of the valley.

Claire Dearing and allies

Dr. Sattler stumbled across unexpected allies during her escape from Biosyn Valley in 2022. She and Dr. Grant found and rescued Maisie Lockwood, the clone daughter of Dr. Sattler’s deceased friend Charlotte Lockwood, in the facility; the girl had been kidnapped by Biosyn for research into her modified genome. Maisie recognized Drs. Sattler and Grant from the stories she had heard about Jurassic Park from her grandfather, InGen co-founder Benjamin Lockwood. Together they escaped, and Dr. Sattler was able to tell Maisie about the mother she had never gotten to meet. Sattler reassured Maisie that she was never just an experiment to Charlotte, and that she had been genuinely loved. Maisie also noticed the obvious romantic tension between Sattler and Grant, even if neither of them had admitted it yet.

After rejoining Dr. Malcolm in the valley, they had a car accident and ended up standed near Research Outpost 04. There, they were met by three other people who had infiltrated the valley separately: Maisie’s adoptive parents, Claire Dearing and Owen Grady, as well as a pilot named Kayla Watts who had helped them get in. Sattler recognized Dearing, who had been Operations Manager at Jurassic World and later founded the Dinosaur Protection Group. Although they differed with respect to what role they believed dinosaurs should play in the modern world, their goals were in this case aligned. Watts led the charge to break into the outpost and reach the tunnels connecting it to Biosyn’s headquarters, though during their effort they had to work together to evade a marauding Giganotosaurus.

In order to escape the valley, they needed to reactivate the Aerial Deterrent System to protect their flight out. A wildfire had caused damage and overexertion of the power grid, so the automated network was diverting all available power to keep the primary system running. Biosyn defector Ramsay Cole helped Sattler and Dearing navigate to the server room where they could cut the power to the primary system. Along the way, Sattler and Dearing bonded, both having faced down dangerous animals and corporate neglectand both still suffering the trauma from their experiences. Ultimately, they cooperated to forcibly shut down the primary system, fighting their way through a swarm of burning insects created by Dodgson and using a fire ax to destroy the cable keeping the primary system connected.

The group was joined by Henry Wu, bringing their number up to nine (plus one juvenile dinosaur). Together they evacuated out toward the helicopter that Kayla Watts had piloted into the courtyard, braving the Giganotosaurus one more time and making it to safety. As a group, their testimony was vital in bringing Biosyn’s executives to justice, and thanks to their willingness to save Henry Wu, the locust plague was ended as well.

De-extinct life

While on Isla Nublar, Dr. Sattler encountered numerous InGen dinosaurs, as well as other de-extinct life such as a veriforman plant. Her first impression of the dinosaurs included the enormous Brachiosaurus and medium-sized Parasaurolophus, which astounded her even more than the plant life. However, after seeing hatchling and adult Velociraptors (including a pride led by The Big One), she was less enthralled and more cautious about the Park.

On the tour, most of the dinosaurs did not make appearances despite her excitement at being able to see them. The Triceratops made the biggest impact, though they only witnessed one sick adult. This sick animal’s diagnosis was confirmed due to Dr. Sattler’s botanical knowledge, along with Tim Murphy’s knowledge of dinosaur behavior.

During the incident, Dr. Sattler was injured during an incident involving the Tyrannosaurus, which rammed a jeep she was attempting to escape in. Its supraorbital ridge wounded her shoulder as it struck the vehicle with its head. She was also menaced by two of the three Velociraptors; The Big One pursued her in the maintenance shed, while Kim chased her and the other survivors through the Visitors’ Centre before being joined by The Big One. However, both raptors were killed when the tyrannosaur ambushed The Big One as prey; Kim attacked the larger theropod in a suicidal rage, which allowed Sattler and the other humans to escape.

While Dr. Sattler would not return to Isla Nublar or visit Isla Sorna, her life was permanently impacted by InGen’s dinosaurs. In particular, her incidents with the tyrannosaur and the raptors left her psychologically scarred, causing her to leave academia for a period of time.

The dinosaurs went on living with or without Dr. Sattler, of course, and had their own triumphs and struggles; in 2005, InGen finally succeeded in opening a de-extinction theme park, Jurassic World. The park operated for ten years before its closure, caused not by any fault of the animals but by corporate neglect leading to a major incident. Debate raged surrounding the animals’ rights until a volcanic eruption in 2018 destroyed most of Isla Nublar; a number of survivors were captured by poachers and brought to the mainland. Soon, escapees and deliberate releases had introduced de-extinct life to many parts of the world.

A number of these animals, including the original Tyrannosaurus, were captured and sent to a sanctuary in Italy after Biosyn Genetics was given the right to collect them by the U.S. government. Prehistoric animals were not the only thing the company was concerned with, though they were also breeding their own new animals; Dr. Sattler came to suspect in 2022 that they were behind the creation of a genetically-engineered locust that was devastating crops. She suspected that the insects were meant to eliminate Biosyn’s competition. She was able to travel to Biosyn Valley where the company headquarters was located thanks to an invitation from Dr. Malcolm, passing through a U.S. government animal transport hub on the way there. At the hub, she was given a tour, where she witnessed many of the species bound for the valley. These included familiar ones such as Parasaurolophus, but also species she had never seen before like Stegosaurus and Nasutoceratops.

In the valley, she was given a tour of the facilities while she secretly planned her investigation. Along the way she learned that the old InGen Tyrannosaurus had just arrived, and that the valley was home to several newly-bred species such as Dreadnoughtus, Giganotosaurus, and Moros intrepidus. During her time there, she encountered the locusts up close when she snuck into the lab where they were kept, and in the process of escaping was forced to travel through the valley itself. Out there she encountered carnivorous Dimetrodons in the subterranean caverns, Biosyn’s Giganotosaurus in the woodlands, and numerous species including Dreadnoughtus, Pteranodon, Iguanodon, and Therizinosaurus when the animals were evacuated during a forest fire. The Giganotosaurus in particular was a major threat; while evacuating the valley, she witnessed it clash with the old Tyrannosaurus and with a Therizinosaurus. Ultimately the Giganotosaurus did not survive; though the fights had happened as they would in nature, the aggressive animals had been forced into a confined space together due to Biosyn’s emergency protocols, so once again the animal was a victim of corporate mishandling. Sattler also finally had a peaceful interaction with a Velociraptor, witnessing the rescue of the juvenile Beta as they evacuated the valley. The locusts, thanks to Dr. Sattler’s investigation, were traced back to Biosyn; a solution was devised to exterminate most of the wild swarms.

Today, these animals are still found out in the wild, and despite Dr. Sattler’s reservations about their role in the modern-day biosphere, it seems they are here to stay. They are not easy to grow accustomed to, not for anyone who remembers the world before the dinosaurs were released into it; nonetheless, coexistence is now necessary. Thankfully, people like Sattler are still around to study the fossil record, helping to prepare us for a future where the past has grown incredibly relevant.

Tom

Dr. Sattler’s book editor as of 2001, a man named Tom, sometimes caused her frustration. He believed himself to be something of a paleontologist and would make editing suggestions to Dr. Sattler’s books that Sattler herself did not agree with. For example, Tom was unhappy with the final chapter in one of Dr. Sattler’s 2001 books, but Sattler would not allow him to remove the section in question due to it including a quote from Dr. Jack Horner that she considered vital.

Hannah

The Degler family employed an in-home secretary and childcare provider named Hannah, who cared for the Deglers’ youngest child during 2001. It is not known how long she worked for them. Her role as secretary meant that she would be a go-between person for Dr. Sattler and her editor Tom. Hannah appears to have been on friendly terms with Dr. Sattler, sharing in her distaste for Tom’s armchair paleontology and unreasonable editing suggestions.

Portrayal

Dr. Ellie Sattler is portrayed by Laura Dern. Her romantic relationship with Dr. Alan Grant was created entirely for the film; in the novel that the film is based on, the two simply have a professor-student relationship and are not romantically attracted to each other. This element of their relationship was added to help audiences empathize with the characters and have more investment in their struggle.

In the Michael Crichton novels, Sattler eventually marries a Berkeley physicist named Dr. Reiman. It has been speculated, but never confirmed, that the writers of Jurassic Park /// may have opted to end her film-canon relationship with Dr. Grant to make the film plot more in line with that of the novels. The unpopularity of this change eventually led to Jurassic World Dominion establishing Sattler as divorcing Mark Degler and resuming her relationship with Alan Grant.

Disambiguation Links

Ellie Sattler (C/N)

Ellie Sattler (JN)

Ellie Sattler (CB-Topps)

Ellie Sattler (IDW-JPR)