Velociraptor

Characteristics ~ ~ ~ ~

Obligatory mention that the real-life counterpart was vastly different than the Jurassic park one* Velociraptor grew to around 6ft long and weighed 30-40 pounds, frequently compared to a turkey in size. It had a long narrow skull which is curved upward supporting a bite force of around 304 N. Its tail made up half its body length and supported a tail fan of feathers at its end and is sometimes depicted as resting upwards like a roadrunner. Velociraptor innermost toe supported the Giant sickle claw which was shaped like a hook and was used for piercing through skin and muscles to target the jugular system. The bones are around 2.6 inches long but would have been longer in life with the layer of keratin over them, which is huge for an animal of it’s size and weight. Velociraptor hunted small lizards, and several small herbivores of the formation such as Protoceratops, Bagaceratops and Prenocephale and various other small animals.Pack hunting in Velociraptor has no supporting evidence, another raptor Deinonychus has been found in groups around a Tenontosaurus carcass and that was teh baseline around most pack hunting theories However just because they were found together doesn’t mean they hunted together and likely all died together because the carcass was in a tar pit or something. Also modern reptiles and birds of prey ‘raptors’ also don’t rarely have any kind of coordination when hunting as they are capible enough by themselves. Other popular dinosaurs Velociraptor would have coexisted with are Linhenychus Oviraptor Pinacosaurus and Velociraptors closest relatives are Shiri and Linhenraptor.

History & Fossils ~ ~ ~ ~

Probably one of the most well known fossils in the world, the fighting dinosaurs fossil captures the moment of a fight to the death between a Protoceratops and Velociraptor. Protoceratops was biting Velociraptors left hand likely breaking it from the immense pressure of it's bite force. Meanwhile Velociraptor had it’s sickle claw inserted right in Protoceratops’ neck. It’s unknown specifically how they died, but the most likely explanation is that a sand dune collapsed quickly burying the two. It’s one of two fighting dinosaur fossils with the other being the Dueling dinosaurs between a Triceratops and Nanotyrannus.

Media Deptictions ~ ~ ~ ~

Jurassic Franchise Featured in Every Film in the franchise, the JP Raptors are what likely comes to mind when the word Raptor is heard. In the novels, the raptors were based heavily upon Deinonychus, sharing a similar appearance to the Bakker Deinonychus illustration. But upon the film's release, Spielberg said they should be larger to be more intimidating, larger raptors like Utahraptor or Austroraptor have not been discovered yet, so it was a good call from the film producers.

×

Species Field Guide | Velociraptor | Jurassic World Evolution 2

< >