Jurassic World The Evolution of Claire Novel Written by Tess Sharpe (The page numbers come from the 1st printing, hardback edition, published 2018)

After the fall of the Jurassic World theme park, Claire Dearing reflects on the events that led her there in the first place.

Read the story summary at the Jurassic Park Wiki

Notes from the Jurassic Park chronology

This novel opens shortly after the events of Jurassic World, with the lead female protagonist, Claire Dearing, writing in the first person her reminiscences on the events of that film and going further back to her time as a 19-year old college freshman who has been given a chance to intern at the new Jurassic World theme park about a year before it opened to the public.

Didja Know?

Jurassic World: The Evolution of Claire is a young adult novel published by Random House.

Characters appearing or mentioned in this novel

Claire Dearing
Zack Mitchell (mentioned only)
Gray Mitchell (mentioned only)
Karen Mitchell
Pete Mitchell (should be Scott Mitchell?, husband of Karen, father of Zack and Gray, mentioned only)
Simon Masrani
Justin Hendricks (dies in this novel)
Regina
Sally (Claire's pet blue-tongued skink)
Professor Gillian (mentioned only)
Mr. and Mrs. Dearing (parents of Karen and Claire)
Professor Broadhurst (mentioned only)
Jackson (young man Claire had a short-lived relationship with in college, mentioned only)
Roo (dog rescued by Claire when she was 12, mentioned only)
Justin's mother (unnamed, mentioned only)
Jessica
Beverly Jamison
Tanya Skye
Eric Skye
Wyatt
Gregory
Veronica "Ronnie" Torres
Victory Skye
Art
Bertie
Rexy (the original T. rex of Jurassic Park)
Agnes, Olive, Dot, and Pearl (Brachiosauruses)
Curie, Johnson, Hypatia (Triceratops)
Lovelace (young Triceratops)
Dr. Henry Wu
Jamie
Amanda
Isobel James (aka Iz, Izzie; mentioned only, deceased)
Dr. Tim O'Donnell
Oscar
Layla
Turner
Sarah
Savannah (mentioned only)
Miranda
Bill, Kathy, and Donnelly James (Izzie's parents and brother, mentioned only)
Ryan (mentioned only)

Didja Notice? 

Besides the two lead human characters, the dust jacket image also features a raptor, a Pteranodon, and overlays of a DNA spiral and organic chemistry symbols.

If you remove the dust jacket, the hardcover itself on the book has an imprint of a piece of amber with an insect body inside. The same image of amber is printed on the dedication page of the book in graytone.

On page 2, Claire remarks that her sister Karen gets anything she wants from her now and forever because her two sons almost got eaten by dinosaurs while in her care at the park (referring to the events in Jurassic World).

Claire has moved off Isla Nublar and back to the United States.

On page 5, Regina is said to have Degas prints hanging askew on the wall of her and Claire's dorm room. This refers to French impressionist artist Edgar Degas (1834-1917).

Page 6 reveals that Claire has a pet blue-tongued skink named after astronaut Sally Ride. Ride (1951-2012) was an American astronaut, engineer, and physicist.

On page 6, Regina gives Claire a pin of a cicada carved out of amber she bought at Riverter's Vintage. As far as I can tell, Riverter's Vintage is a fictitious business.

On page 7, Claire gives Regina a gift of the Nicholson translation of Rumi's Masnavi from the 1930s. Masnavi is a series of six books of poetry by the Persian Sufi poet called Rumi (Jalal al-Din Muhammad Balkhi, 1207-1273). The first complete English translation was produced by Reynold A. Nicholson (1868-1945) in 8 volumes from 1925-1940.

On page 12, Karen remarks to Claire that she spent her first year away from home getting sexiled by her roommate. "Sexiled" refers to being unable to enter a shared residence because one's roommate is having sex.

On page 14, Claire jokingly remarks that Karen owns half a Sephora store. Sephora is a French multinational chain of stores offering high-end beauty and fragrance products.

Mr. Dearing's truck is an old Ford F-150.

On page 17 and elsewhere, Karen uses the affectionate nickname Claire-bear for her younger sister.

On page 18, Claire asks Karen if she's decided which school to send Zach to for kindergarten and Karen says she's leaning towards Pine Grove, close to her house. She may be referring to a school in the town of Pine Grove, Wisconsin. In Jurassic World, Claire's cell phone displays Karen's phone number with an area code that matches to the city of Madison, Wisconsin (though Pine Grove is about 90 miles from Madison; it's certainly possible Karen's family lives closer to Pine Grove at this earlier point in time).

Mr. and Mrs. Dearing live in Northampton. This probably refers to Northampton, Massachusetts.

On page 22, Claire states that "Pete" is Karen's husband. But in Jurassic World, her husband was named Scott.

On page 23, Claire refers to herself as Careful Claire. Possibly others have called her this based on her personality?

Page 24 refers to John Hammond as Dr. John Hammond. He was shown with the title of "Doctor" in a CNN interview at the end of The Lost World.

On page 27, Claire states that her dog Earhart was not just named after the pilot...she has a scar on her left ear in the shape of a heart. The pilot referred to is Amelia Earhart, an American aviatrix who disappeared in 1937 during an attempt to circumnavigate the globe in a small airplane.

On pages 35-36, Claire states her opinion that Masrani has brought true royalty back to the animal kingdom. She just may be referring to dinosaurs in general, or more specifically, to Tyrannosaurus rex, rex being Latin for "king".

On page 39, Regina teases Claire that maybe she'll fall for a handsome dinosaur trainer on the island. That doesn't happen here, but she does later have a relationship with raptor trainer Owen Grady in Jurassic World.

While describing Masrani's dramatic, phased announcement of the new dinosaur park on page 41, Claire mentions YouTube.

    Page 41 implies that the Jurassic World park opened on May 30, 2005 (possibly a non-public opening since the Jurassic World website states that the park opened in June of that year).
   A 2005 date also seems to contradict statements in the Redemption comic book mini-series that suggest both Isla Nublar and Isla Sorna are under protected status as of the 2006-2008 timeframe, with no public park in existence.

Also on page 41, Claire states that one of the things people throughout the world have come to compare notes on is "Where were you when Masrani announced Jurassic World?" This is similar to other world-shaking events that led people to ask questions such as "Where were you when you heard about President Kennedy's assassination?" or "Where were you when you heard about the

September 11 terrorist attacks?"

Page 46 reveals that Claire had been a Girl Scout. This refers to the Girl Scouts of the USA, a youth organization for girls ages 5-18, known to be prepared and responsible.

On page 51, Claire mentions a book about historical women she got for Christmas when she was a kid, featuring stories about women like Ada Lovelace (1815-1852), Ida B. Wells (1862-1931), and Phyllis Wheately (1753-1784). All three are actual historical figures in the arts and sciences. Later in the novel, a young Triceratops is named Lovelace.

As she waits for her flight to take off from the tarmac on page 54, Claire reads the Journal of Avocational Paleontology, particularly an article about the discovery of the new fossil Pneumodesmus newmeni. It seems, though, that the actual name of the fossilized species is Pneumodesmus newmani, a Paleozoic millipede whose fossil was first discovered by amateur paleontologist Mike Newman near Stonehaven, Scotland.

On page 55, Claire admits she hates heights. It's also revealed that Justin is not fond of flying.

 
   On page 56, Claire and Justin discuss the Bone Wars of Edward Cope (1840-1897) and Othniel Marsh (1831-1899) in the late 1800s. The story of the Bone Wars and the Cope-Marsh rivalry told by the characters here is accurate.
   Our two protagonists also briefly mention the AC/DC wars of Edison and Tesla. Usually referred to journalistically as the "war of the currents", it was the battle for supremacy in the United States of the competing electrical transmission systems of AC (alternating current) and DC (direct current). The famed scientists/inventors Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) and Thomas Edison (1847-1931) advocated for AC and DC, respectively.

Page 59 reveals that Justin's mother is the founder and owner of a vegan cosmetics company called Ivy Rose. I presume this is a fictitious company invented for the novel, but there is a company called Ivy Rose Beauty in Australia that advertises itself as vegan friendly!

Also on page 59, Justin remarks to Claire that when he went back home for a few weeks from college, he felt like he was in a Twilight Zone episode due to being treated like a child again even though he knew he was an adult. This is a reference to the classic Twilight Zone TV series of 1959-1964, an anthology of fantasy, horror, science-fiction, and suspense.

On page 64, Tanya remarks that guys tend to outnumber girls in STEM-focused programs. STEM stands for Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Page 65 implies that a number of plant hybrids have been created for the dinosaurs of Jurassic World to safely eat.

On page 77, Claire remarks that some of the plants on Isla Nublar are probably resurrected from the past much like the dinosaurs. Did the plant DNA also come from pieces of amber? It is reasonable to assume that leaf or stem remains could be found in amber just as blood-sucking insects were in Jurassic Park. (Extinct plant species are also implied to exist on Isla Nublar in Jurassic Park.)

 
   On page 85, Tanya muses on whether an MRI would work through the hide of a dinosaur. MRI stands for Magnetic Resonance Imaging, a technique used in radiology to photograph details of internal structures of organic bodies.
   Art remarks that the vets on the island are creating an entirely new subset of medicine in caring for the dinosaurs. Of course, Dr. Gerry Harding and others started this new form of medical practice more than a decade earlier in Jurassic Park.

Eric carries a Nikon video camera.

On page 86, Ronnie remarks that Masrani has "spared no cost" in the security on Isla Nublar. This is a callback to John Hammond's tendency to use the phrase "spared no expense" when describing his park in Jurassic Park.

On page 87, Masrani tells his new interns that more dinosaurs will be arriving this summer from Isla Sorna (the island where InGen's dinosaurs were raised, which first appeared in The Lost World). Page 94 explicitly states that he now owns that island as well. Isla Sorna was not mentioned at all in Jurassic World.

This novel always capitalizes the word "Gyrosphere", possibly indicating it is a trademarked name by one of Masrani's companies.

Page 89 has Masrani implying that the area of the island where the Gyrospheres are allowed to travel amongst the herbivores is called Gyrosphere Valley.

On page 92, Tanya is excited to see a monkey puzzle tree, Araucaria araucana, which she describes as a major food source in the Mesozoic period. This is a real tree that still exists today, though endangered due to human activity.

 
   On page 93, Bertie tells the interns about the training of the herbivorous dinosaurs currently going on and that carnivore training will be much trickier and will take a very special person--and a really brave one--to crack the carnivore code. This, of course, is a foreshadowing of Owen Grady in Jurassic World.
   Bertie and the interns also discuss the original T. rex of Jurassic Park, who will be part of the new park (as seen in Jurassic World). Later in the book, it's revealed that the original T. rex is called Rexy.

On page 94, Bertie tells the interns that the island's four Brachiosauruses are named Agnes, Olive, Dot, and Pearl, the names meant to evoke a knitting circle of elderly ladies.

The three adult Triceratops on the island are called Curie, Johnson, and Hypatia after Marie Curie (1867-1934), Katherine Johnson (1918-), and Hypatia (4th-5th Century AD). These women are all historically important figures in science.

    On page 106, Claire points out a Starbucks under construction on Main Street of the new park to Justin, saying, "Starbucks really is everywhere." Justin responds, "Never deny people their coffee. That's just Business 101." Starbucks is a worldwide coffeehouse chain.

   "Main Street" may be a call-out to Disneyland, which also features a thoroughfare called Main Street, U.S.A.

The interns are brought to the still-under-construction Samsung Innovation Center (seen completed in Jurassic World). Claire is disappointed that the new visitor center wasn't named after Dr. Hammond. Possibly, Claire will go on to be the reason that the Hammond Creation Lab is seen as one of the attractions inside the building in Jurassic World.

On page 111, Dr. Henry Wu, the chief geneticist first seen in "Genesis" (chronologically), shows up in the novel. He was last seen, chronologically, in "Redemption" Part 4.

On page 113, Masrani and Justin are talking about ROI and franchise agreements. ROI stands for "return on investment".

On page 115, Claire enters Dr. Wu's laboratory, thinking she can "practically smell the science...or maybe that's the frog parts they're using to splice missing DNA strands." In Jurassic Park, the animated character Mr. DNA told Drs. Grant, Sattler, and Malcolm that frog DNA was used to fill in the gaps of the recovered dino DNA from the preserved insects caught in amber.

 
   On page 118, it is stated that Dr. Wu has continued to improve and hone the science of dinosaur creation in the years since the original park. On page 120, Dr. Wu discusses how the DNA sequencing of the dinosaurs, and how they fill in the missing DNA strands, has changed since then. He seems to say that one of the reasons is for aesthetics, to make the dinosaurs look more like the way we have been taught to think of how they looked (sans feathers, etc.).

   Also, O₂ levels were higher on Earth when the dinosaurs originally existed, so they had to be changed to deal with the current environment. Temperament was another genetic factor that was altered.

On page 121, Claire says, "Nature always finds a way." She seems to be inadvertently(?) paraphrasing Dr. Ian Malcolm's phrase, "Life finds a way," in Jurassic Park.

On page 124, Claire finds that the map on her JW-provided tablet has an animated assistant, Mr. DNA, previously seen in the introductory film to Jurassic Park in Jurassic Park (and also briefly glimpsed in Jurassic World).

Tanya wonders if there are Hügelkultur beds in the Jurassic World greenhouses. Hügelkultur is a German gardening method in which a mound of compostable biomass is built as a raised bed for growing botanicals. Possibly, Tanya is excited about the prospect because Hügelkultur is a folkloric theory of plant growth, not yet scientifically proven.

On page 126, Claire thinks that Wyatt is negging Amanda. "Negging" is a slang term for the act of using backhanded compliments to make another person feel inferior and crave the approval of the complimentor.

Page 130 mentions InGen. InGen was the company owned by John Hammond which created Jurassic Park.

Also on page 130, Claire states that all the interns had to sign NDAs as part of their contract. NDA stands for non-disclosure agreement.

On page 136, Claire discovers Izzie's notebook under her bed. She describes it as a basic black Moleskine. Moleskine is a British maker of luxury notebooks and other school/work products.

As they drive out to the Gyrosphere Valley on page 139, Claire and Justin listen to "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" and "Born to be Wild". Both are real world songs, "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" originally written in the Zulu language by Solomon Linda in 1939 and "Born to be Wild" by Steppenwolf in 1968.

On page 141, Wyatt egotistically proclaims that he goes to Harvard. Harvard University is one of the most prestigious universities in the world.

Bertie's second-in-command over the interns is named Sarah. This is probably not the same Sarah who is seen as the announcer at the Mosasaurus tank in Jurassic World.

 
   When the young Triceratops called Lovelace gets stuck in a gully, Tanya sings a song that seems to calm the creature, "Feeling Good" by Nina Simone (1933-2003). The song was originally written by composers Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse for the musical The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd in 1964. Simone's later version is one of the most well-known.
   Later, Tanya sings "Ain't Misbehavin'" to the beast. This is a 1929 jazz song by Andy Razaf, Fats Waller, and Harry Brooks for the Broadway musical comedy Connie's Hot Chocolates.

On page 172, Izzie's journal mentions that she attends Yale University, another Ivy League university like Harvard.

The young Brachiosaur called Pearl likes to play with the unoccupied Gyrospheres, leaving the occupied ones alone. Nevertheless, Justin promises Claire as they drive one that he'll have her back if Pearl "decides to play whack-a-Gyrosphere." He is making a play on the name of the popular arcade game Whac-A-Mole.

On page 179, Oscar states that a special alert will blare if the Gyrosphere goes off-track (outside the established boundaries of safe exploration of the valley).

On page 180, Claire mentions that the bodies of the Gyrospheres are made out of aluminum oxynitride glass, stronger than any steel. Aluminum oxynitride was also mentioned in the Jimmy Fallon video that plays in Zach and Gray's Gyrosphere in Jurassic World, including that it could stop a 50-caliber bullet.

On page 205, Dr. Wu tells Tanya, Eric, and Claire that his lab is currently focused on building the necessary DNA strands to acclimate a Mosasaurus to the changes in the ocean since the Maastrichtian Age. The Maastrichtian Age is part of the Cretaceous epoch, which is when the mosasaurs existed.

 
   Also on page 205, Tanya asks Dr. Wu how Mosasaurus DNA was found considering the creatures lived exclusively in the water, but Wu dodges the question. A mosasaur also previously appeared in "The Survivors" and in PopApostle's study of that video game chapter, I pointed out that we never get an explanation of how InGen was able to obtain mosasaur DNA. In fact, even within that very game chapter, Dr. Jerry Harding explains that the marine facility of Jurassic Park actually houses modern day marine creatures that are considered "living fossils" because they've evolved very little since dinosaur times, remarking InGen couldn't expect to find insects that had bitten and drank the blood of marine creatures hundreds of meters under the sea.
   So, the existence of the Mosasaurus here remains unexplained.

Tanya's explanation on page 206 of the effects of eucalyptus leaves and the energy required for koalas to digest it is only very roughly accurate.

Page 219 reveals that the three adult Brachiosauruses (Agnes, Olive, and Dot) are from the original Jurassic Park. The young brachiosaur, Pearl, is six years old.

On page 226, Claire says the size of the Pteranodon eggs she and the others observe in Wu's lab is about three times the size of a chicken egg. I've been unable to confirm the accuracy of this statement for Pteranodon eggs.

On page 231, Tanya jokingly tells Claire she should put her hair in braids like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. She is referring to the classic 1939 film version of the book The Wizard of Oz, in which actress Judy Garland plays the character Dorothy in braids.

On page 239, Amanda has heard that there is a cave behind one of the waterfalls on the island. Such a cave does appear on Isla Nublar in Michael Crichton's original novel, Jurassic Park, but not in any of the JP movieverse stories (though a similar cave does appear on Isla Sorna in The Lost World).

On page 243, Justin remarks that the compies are small, but can get chompy when they're in the mood. We saw this occur in The Lost World.

On page 254, Beverly mentions super PACs. A super PAC is a type of political action committee in the United States that can raise and spend unlimited political funds independently, but not donate to, or spend directly for, a political party or candidate campaign.

On page 273, Claire writes that the first live dinosaur most people ever saw was a T. rex, when it got loose in San Diego. This occurred in the final act of The Lost World.

Page 279 reveals that Izzie was a biochem major at Yale before her death. Her obituary on page 280 establishes she was a member of the Yale chapter of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.

Izzie's obituary names her family as Bill (father), Kathy (mother), and Donnelly (brother). In the obituary, the family asks for donations to the Mighty Girl Initiative in lieu of flowers.

Izzie's family home was in Boston.

The three plant species listed in Izzie's journal on page 290 are real world species.

Riding in a Gyrosphere on page 307, Claire and Justin contemplate the terror of going over a waterfall in it, noting that it's definitely not airtight. Later, in Fallen Kingdom, Claire and Franklin Webb wind up going over a cliff and landing in the ocean in a Gyrosphere, which promptly begins to sink.

On page 309, Claire mentions the volcano on the island, Mount Sibo. The in-universe Jurassic World website tells us much of the island's power came from the geo-thermal activity of Mount Sibo. Mount Sibo was also mentioned in "The Survivors" and plays a prominent role in Fallen Kingdom.

Page 362 reveals that Justin lived in Portland. This probably refers to Portland, Oregon.

Tanya reveals to Claire that she and Eric were stealing secrets from Jurassic World for the pharmaceutical company Mosby Health in order to get their sick little sister into a promising trial program that could cure her. Mosby Health is a fictitious company.

Unanswered Questions

Although Claire solves most of the mystery of Isobel James, the note "Watch your back" she found on a slip of paper in Izzie's notebook remains unexplained. Who wrote it? What was it warning of? Possibly, this mystery is being saved for a later book, but there has been no official information from publisher Random House that any follow-up books in this series are planned.