The second-oldest Triceratops horridus living on Isla Nublar in 1993 suffered from a chronic illness which was unidentified by Park veterinarians. Along with the other Triceratops, she would have been a tourist attraction in the northern paddock area. Most details about her life remain undisclosed. She is believed to be deceased.
Name
The official name of this animal has not been given, but two possibilities exist. In some versions of the film script, she is referred to as “Freda;” this name originates from Old Norse and means “beautiful” or “beloved.” In the LEGO Jurassic World video game, Dr. Gerry Harding states that her name is “Sarah,” and that Dr. Harding named her after his eldest daughter.
Biography
Early life
The date on which this Triceratops hatched remains unknown, but she would have hatched sometime during or after 1986. She was not the oldest Triceratops hatched by International Genetic Technologies; at least one, Lady Margaret, was older. She was hatched on Isla Sorna within the Embryonics, Administration, and Laboratories Compound.
InGen personnel determined that she was suitable for exhibition in Jurassic Park. Sometime between 1988 and 1993, she was transported from Isla Sorna to Isla Nublar, where she likely arrived via the North Dock or East Dock and was transported to the northern Triceratops paddock.
Life on Isla Nublar
This Triceratops remained within her paddock throughout the Park’s construction, living alongside another adult female named Lady Margaret as well as several juveniles. The youngest, an animal named Bakhita, was introduced to the paddock in 1993. She was cared for by InGen personnel while there, and provided with food, water, and suitable habitat.
In the paddock, she foraged for stones to use as gastroliths to assist in her digestion of plant matter. While picking up and swallowing these stones, she unintentionally consumed poisonous West Indian lilac, which grew in the same location as her preferred stones. Her symptoms included disorientation, imbalance, labored breathing, and microvesicles on the tongue. Because of the toxic effects of the plants, InGen staff correctly assumed that the animals did not eat them; however, they did not anticipate that the plants might be consumed on accident, and so this animal’s health difficulties remained undiagnosed. After six weeks she would regurgitate the gastroliths and consume new stones, causing her to suffer the poisonous effects of the plant again.
1993 incident
On June 11, 1993, this Triceratops had recently consumed a gastrolith stone and West Indian lilac along with it. As she once again fell ill, Jurassic Park’s head veterinarian Dr. Gerry Harding was assigned to try to diagnose and treat her before leaving for the weekend. Park warden Robert Muldoon tranquilized the Triceratops so that Dr. Harding could observe her safely.
While the appointment was underway, the Jurassic Park endorsement tour passed through the paddock, and paleontologists Drs. Alan Grant and Ellie Sattler attempted to assist Dr. Harding in diagnosing the source of the symptoms. Upon noticing the unusual dilation of the trike’s pupils, Dr. Sattler concluded that the likely cause was a pharmacological effect from plant consumption. She searched through animal dung in the paddock to determine if any West Indian lilac berries could be found, but none were present.
The group did discover lilac berries among her regurgitated gastroliths, the berries having remained in her gizzard along with the stones until both were regurgitated. This finally solved the issue of what was causing this dinosaur’s chronic illness. While most of the personnel present returned to the tour as a tropical storm struck the island, Dr. Sattler remained with Dr. Harding assisting with treatment of the Triceratops. Shortly before 7:00pm local time, both scientists had left the paddock for the Visitors’ Centre.
According to InGen documentation, one “lame” Triceratops died during the incident due to an incident involving the escaped Tyrannosaurus. However, the sick Triceratops did not appear to have any physical disability, and another such animal, Lady Margaret, was killed by the tyrannosaur during the incident.
Death
While it has been suggested that she died during the incident, this is not known for certain. Her date and cause of death, therefore, are not officially known. She is not believed to have any descendants.
Skills
Parenting skills
The original script of Jurassic Park portrays this animal (called Freda in some versions) as having a parental relationship with a more recently-cloned Triceratops, acting as an adoptive mother. This is consistent with the behaviors seen in other members of the species, which typically have excellent parenting skills and are very protective of younger trikes.
Physical strength and durability
As with all Triceratops, one of her chief defining skills would have been her offensive and defensive capabilities. Growing nearly as large as some elephants, her size granted her strength that she could use to protect herself and the other members of her family group. Her long horns and tough bony head frill would have worked as powerful defensive implements against most predators. Even when sick, she retained enough strength that Dr. Harding requested Robert Muldoon tranquilize her before he would enter the paddock to try and treat her.
Although she was a powerful animal, she was not invincible and suffered some ill health effects. The most notable of these was chronic gastric poisoning caused by ingestion of West Indian lilac, which she would accidentally consume while foraging for gastroliths. She also had a genetic lysine deficiency, necessitating weekly supplements to avoid entering a comatose state. If she survived the 1993 incident, this condition would have been cured by Dr. Laura Sorkin by means of gene therapy administered on June 12.
Views
As an animal of average dinosaurian intelligence, little is known about how this Triceratops perceived the world around her, or how her particular experience and thought processes differed from other members of her species.
Relationships
Dr. Henry Wu
This Triceratops, like all InGen’s biological assets, was designed and cloned by Dr. Henry Wu and colleagues.
Dr. Laura Sorkin
Along with the other Isla Nublar animals, the Triceratops were studied by paleogeneticist Dr. Laura Sorkin; this animal was likely one of the specimens she researched.
Dr. Gerry Harding
Due to her chronic illness, this Triceratops was a patient of InGen veterinarian Dr. Gerry Harding and the other InGen veterinary staff. Despite their care, she continued to suffer due to their assumption that West Indian lilac consumption could not be causing her illness, when in fact this was exactly what was causing her illness. Along with Dr. Ellie Sattler, Dr. Gerry Harding was the last person known to see this Triceratops alive on June 11, 1993.
While it is not film-canon, the video game LEGO Jurassic World implies a close relationship between Dr. Harding and the sick Triceratops, who is named “Sarah” after Dr. Harding’s daughter.
Robert Muldoon
Jurassic Park warden Robert Muldoon was responsible for handling the animals, particularly during dangerous activities. He is known to have tranquilized this particular Triceratops on June 11, 1993 so that Dr. Harding could perform a diagnosis.
Other InGen staff
After hatching in the Embryonics, Administration, and Laboratories Compound on Isla Sorna, she would have been cared for by InGen scientists for the first months to years of her life. Once she was old enough, by 1988 or later, she was transported by boat to Isla Nublar, where Park associates continued to ensure that she had enough food, water, and safe habitat to survive. Her health was not always best provided for; InGen knowingly planted West Indian lilac as a decorative plant in her habitat, despite the fact that it was toxic to her when consumed.
InGen CEO Dr. John Hammond may have been present when she hatched. He stated that he had been present for the hatching of every creature on Isla Nublar; however, this animal would have hatched on Isla Sorna, about which Hammond made no similar statement.
Isla Nublar Triceratops
Several other Triceratops inhabited the northern paddock. As per Jurassic Park: The Game, there was one older adult female and three younger females. The eldest female, Lady Margaret, was dominant over all the others, including this individual. Both adults cared for the younger animals, despite not being their biological parents. In unused concept art for Park technology, one of the trikes is named “Emile.” One of the young trikes in an older version of the film script, presumably Emile, had a mother-daughter-like relationship with this animal, who is named “Freda” in that version. Another of the young trikes was named Bakhita; the name of the third is sometimes presumed to be Ralph, after the juvenile from Michael Crichton’s novel, but is not officially named in any source material linked to the film.
Lady Margaret perished during the Isla Nublar incident on June 11, 1993; this Triceratops would then be the eldest member of her species and the alpha of the herd. By the time InGen stopped monitoring the island in 1993, there were only three Triceratops remaining, and only two in October of 1994. It is generally assumed that this individual was among the casualties for that period of time.
Jurassic Park guests
On June 11, 1993, the northern Triceratops paddock was visited by guests invited by InGen to tour and endorse the Park. These included paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant, paleobotanist Dr. Ellie Sattler, chaotician Dr. Ian Malcolm, legal representative Donald Gennaro, and the grandchildren of InGen’s CEO and President John Hammond. The guests’ reaction to seeing the animal was generally positive, though apprehensive at first due to her size. In particular, Dr. Grant described her as the “most beautiful thing [he’d] ever seen.” Dr. Sattler and Tim Murphy were able to diagnose her illness by associating gastrolith consumption with accidental consumption of toxic plants.
Due to being heavily tranquilized at the time, the Triceratops was only somewhat aware of the surrounding humans, and had only limited reactions to their presence.
At the approach of a tropical storm, most of the guests left the area, but Dr. Sattler remained to continue assisting in Dr. Harding’s treatment of the Triceratops. These two scientists are the last known people to have seen this trike alive.
Tyrannosaurus rex
Isla Nublar’s resident apex predator, a Tyrannosaurus rex named “Roberta” or “Rexy,” may have killed this Triceratops for food or in self-defense, being the only animal on the island at the time capable of killing an adult Triceratops in combat. The tyrannosaur is known to have previously killed at least one other trike, Lady Margaret.
Portrayal
The sick Triceratops was portrayed in the film Jurassic Park by a lifelike animatronic. Her role originally belonged to a Stegosaurus, as in the novel; director Steven Spielberg opted to cast a Triceratops instead due to personal preference. The change was officially made in the second version of the script by screenwriter Malia Scotch Marmo after being sent concept art by Spielberg.
She is mentioned in Jurassic Park: The Game, but does not appear.
