![]() In Jurassic Park, Velociraptors were depicted as pack hunters. By moving with their clawed toes lifted, Velociraptors kept their talons sharp enough to pierce prey once it was in their grasp, they likely finished the job with a jaw full of serrated teeth. Their muscular legs and long shins allowed them to take long strides and reach speeds estimated to hit 24 miles an hour. The bipeds had an excellent sense of smell, evidenced by the size and shape of the part of their skulls that held olfactory bulbs, the part of the brain that processes scent. Given a Latin name that means “quick plunderer,” Velociraptors clearly were thought to have been effective hunters. Although scientists once theorized the claws may have been used for slashing, most now believe that the dinosaur used them to pierce and pin down prey as hawks do. Still, Velociraptors are often likened to birds of prey such as eagles and hawks because of the long claw protruding from the second toe of each foot. Instead, the 2007 study hypothesized that Velociraptor’s feathers might have been an evolutionary leftover from smaller ancestors that could fly, or they might have served to attract mates, shield nests from the cold, or maneuver while running. Not only were its arms too short for flying, but Velociraptor’s wishbone-a forked bone between the neck and breast that generally serves as a spring to help birds fly-wasn’t the right shape to support flapping wings. Unlike many of its avian relatives, however, this dinosaur was Earth-bound. In 2007, a study published in the journal Science found that a Velociraptor mongoliensis fossil had quill knobs-bumps along its forearm that anchor feather quills to the bone and are common in modern birds. Researchers have long suspected that Velociraptors were feathered rather than covered with reptilian scales. This family connection explains why Velociraptors had many traits found in modern-day birds, including their hinged ankles, swivel-jointed wrists, wishbones, and forward-facing toes. There’s strong consensus among scientists that today’s birds are actually dinosaurs, and that they evolved from theropods, a family of three-toed predators that included Velociraptor mongoliensis and Tyrannosaurus rex. So what were Velociraptors really like? Although our knowledge is still growing as more fossil evidence is unearthed, paleontologists have managed to learn a lot about these iconic predators. In fact, the raptors that terrorized Jurassic Park were based on a Velociraptor relative: Deinonychus antirrhopus, a much larger dinosaur that inhabited North America in the early Cretaceous period, about 145 to 100 million years ago. And they likely hunted solo-using their claws to clutch rather than slash prey- when they roamed central and eastern Asia between about 74 million and 70 million years ago, during the late Cretaceous period. They grew up to 100 pounds, about the size of a wolf. Velociraptors were actually feathered animals. One particularly famous specimen preserves a Velociraptor locked in combat with a Protoceratops.Velociraptors have been misunderstood ever since they were featured in Jurassic Park as giant scaly dinosaurs that hunted in packs and disemboweled prey with sickle-shaped claws. It is also well known to paleontologists, with over a dozen described fossil skeletons-the most of any dromaeosaurid. In the films it was shown with anatomical inaccuracies, including being much larger than it was in reality and without feathers. Velociraptor (commonly shortened to 'raptor') is one of the dinosaur genera most familiar to the general public due to its prominent role in the Jurassic Park motion picture series. Velociraptor can be distinguished from other dromaeosaurids by its long and low skull, with an upturned snout. ![]() ![]() It was a bipedal, feathered carnivore with a long, stiffened tail and an enlarged sickle-shaped claw on each hindfoot, which is thought to have been used to kill its prey. Smaller than other dromaeosaurids like Deinonychus and Achillobator, Velociraptor nevertheless shared many of the same anatomical features. osmolskae, was named in 2008 for skull material from Inner Mongolia, China. mongoliensis fossils of this species have been discovered in Mongolia. Two species are currently recognized, although others have been assigned in the past. ![]() Velociraptor ( /vɨˈlɒsɨræptər/ meaning 'swift seizer') is a genus of dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaur that existed approximately 75 to 71 million years ago during the later part of the Cretaceous Period. ![]()
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