*teleports behind u*

I think he's just backup for the triangle-standers there to support Grant and Sattler, but you can see all 6 of them standing in perfect form, so the poor kid probably just got bored waiting for one of them to go to the bathroom. He was supposed to have tarp ready in case of a random windstorm or helicopter, but that almost never happens so instead he was just daydreaming about giant chickens.

One or both parents are working the dog, and summer vacation comes up?

The leap from this to training them like dogs in the sequel ...

Wanting to hangout with a hot blonde digging for dinosaur bones all day? Guess that makes me a boomer

At the beginning of the film he totally is.

Perhaps it was a plaster cast replica of the real fossil itself.

The claw is actually such a powerful visual metaphor. At the beginning of the film he's defensive and hostile to children. He's an old grumpy man. A dinosaur if you will, but through the events of the film he becomes something altogether different. He evolves, and because of those changes he doesn't need his defenses anymore. Him not being married to Dr. Sadler in the 3rd movie is such a slap in the face of his arc in Jurassic Park.

Still probably fuck that kid up