Tim Murphy's father knows close to nothing about dinosaurs and prefers sports, usally baseball. He is mentioned a few times in the Jurassic Park novel. In perhaps his most notable appearance, Tim's family went to an unspecified Natural History Museum (though it is very likely the American Museum of Natural History). Tim's father made several incorrect statements about a Camptosaurus skeleton, with Tim constantly correcting him. Then his father noticed Tim concentrating on a Tyrannosaurus skeleton and asked why he was looking at it for so long. Tim was counting the vertebrae, because he believed it had the wrong amount. Stunned by how the museum could have a skeleton that was wrong, his father stomped off towards a security guard to ask. He came back, having been told that the dinosaur was