First time I saw the Jurassic park I thought no way would intelligent people just run around a huge and therefore dangerous Brachiosaurus or jump out of the car and run right to the ill Triceratops. That would be Darwin's award kind of madness.
Then I studied biology, got to know some zoologists and paleontologists, and yeah, this is exactly what would happen.
I haven't seen Prometheus - the reviews talking about stupid characters were too much for me. Are you saying the characters are not really stupid, just have way too much enthusiasm for their scientific field to care for their safety?