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| Velociraptor Temporal range: Upper Cretaceous |
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| Velociraptor. | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Sauropsida |
| Superorder: | Dinosauria |
| Order: | Saurischia |
| Suborder: | Theropoda |
| (unranked): | Coelurosauria |
| Family: | Dromaeosauridae |
| Genus: | Velociraptor |
Velociraptor was a predatory dromaeosaur of the Upper Cretaceous, about 75–71 million years ago.
It was a slender, lightly built carnivore. It was about two meters long (nearly seven feet) and 0.62 meters tall at the hip, which is bigger than the size of the common chimpanzee.
Velociraptor had one sickle-shaped claw on its foot which measured 6.5 centimeters along its length, and a smaller one on each hand. Velociraptor was warm blooded and had feathers.
Fossils from China suggest that the whole clade had similar traits.
Fossils of Velociraptor were first found in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia in 1922. In 1988, scientists from China found Velociraptor skeletons in northern China.
A famous Velociraptor, discovered in 1971, was found attacking a Protoceratops in a fossil from Mongolia.
In September 2007 researchers found quill knobs on the forearm of a Velociraptor found in Mongolia. These bumps on bird wing bones show where feathers anchor, and their presence on Velociraptor indicate it too had feathers.
Turner and colleagues interpreted the presence of feathers on Velociraptor as evidence that the ancestors of dromaeosaurids could fly, making Velociraptor and other large members of this family secondarily flightless. This idea has since been discarded; the unmodified forearms count against it. Therefore, the feathers in the ancestors of Velociraptor had another function. The feathers of the flightless Velociraptor may have been used for display, for covering their nests while brooding.
The majority view is that dinosaur feathers were primarily adaptations for temperature regulation, and that other uses came later. Velociraptor was not able to fly.
Specimens from two species have been found:
In both cases the ecology of the time was dry, with sand dunes with occasional streams.
Films such as Jurassic Park and some of The Land Before Time films helped make Velociraptor popular. However, the raptors in Jurassic Park were far larger than the real thing. They were the size of Utahraptor, a really large member of the same clade. The films also exaggerate its probable intelligence.
V. mongoliensis compared in size to a human
V. mongoliensis restored by Matthew Martyniuk (2006) showing the large wing feathers evidenced by fossil quill knobs.
The type skull of V. mongoliensis on display at the American Museum of Natural History
Specimen IGM 100/982
V. mongoliensis cast, Museum voor Natuurwetenschappen, Brussels
Size of Velociraptor (4) compared with other dromaeosaurs
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The "Fighting Dinosaurs" specimen of V. mongoliensis and Protoceratops andrewsi
V. mongoliensis restraining an oviraptorosaur with its sickle claws
Skull of the V. mongoliensis "Fighting Dinosaurs" specimen
Restored V. mongoliensis skeleton in Japan
Undescribed V. mongoliensis skull
V. mongoliensis in environment by Nobu Tamura, 2007.
2003 restoration by Raúl Martín showing a featherless Velociraptor battling Protoceratops. The creature continues to be rendered in this outdated way in many popular images.
