Velociraptor was a carnivore (meat-eater) that lived in
the late Cretaceous period,
about 84 to 80 million years ago.
Fossils have so far been
found in Mongolia and
China.
Velociraptor was about 6 feet (1.8 meters) long, and about 3 feet (0.9 meters)
high.
Velociraptor was a predator that probably hunted in packs. Its most formidable
weapon was the curved claws on its hind feet. Its name, chosen by
Henry Fairfield Osborn
in
1924
means "swift thief".
Movie goers will remember that Velociraptors featured heavily in the
Jurassic Park movies.
In the movies, Velociraptors were as large, if not slightly larger, than humans, and also
highly intelligent - however these two aspects of the creature
were probably exaggerated:
To be fair, we don't actually know exactly how smart Velociraptor would have been
- and it was probably smart for a dinosaur - but it seems unlikely to have been as smart
as a whale, dolphin or primate (as Sam Neill's character claims in
Jurassic Park III).
As far size is concerned, the Velociraptors seemed to be modelled after Deinonychus
(which has sometimes been known as Velociraptor antirrhopus), which is actually
a close relative of Velociraptor. This fits, because in the
Jurassic Park novel,
a character states that Deinonychus
is now considered to be one the Velociraptors.
Additionally, this explanation fits because in the story
fossils of the animal
are found in Montana,
which was actually part of Deinonychus' (but not Velociraptor's) range.
One other interesting fact about Velociraptor, is that is now believed to have been
entirely covered in feathers, and had a warm-blooded bird-like metabolism.
Of course most depictions of Velociraptor don't show it this way
(in the
Jurassic Park movies,
it is show as having a scaled skin, although by the third movie there are a few
feathers on its head and neck).
Velociraptor was a member of the Saurischia ("lizard-hipped") order of dinosaurs. What this means, is that although Velociraptor was not closely related to lizards, it did have similarly shaped pelvic bones.
Velociraptor was a Theropod - a member of a group of related bipedal dinosaurs that included the ancestors of birds (although Velociraptor was not itself an ancestor of birds).
Velociraptor lived between about 84 million years ago and 80 million years ago, during the late Cretaceous period.
CERTAIN CONTENT THAT APPEARS ON THIS SITE COMES FROM AMAZON SERVICES LLC. THIS CONTENT IS PROVIDED 'AS IS' AND IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE OR REMOVAL AT ANY TIME. CERTAIN CONTENT THAT APPEARS ON THIS SITE,COMES FROM AMAZON EU S.à r.l. THIS CONTENT IS PROVIDED 'AS IS' AND IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE OR REMOVAL AT ANY TIME.
In Association With Amazon.com Answers 2000 Limited is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. In Association With Amazon.co.uk Answers 2000 Limited is a participant in the Amazon EU Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.co.uk. As an Amazon Associate, our company earns from qualifying purchases. Amazon, the Amazon logo, Endless, and the Endless logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.
Disclosure:
Our company's websites' content (including this website's content) includes advertisements for
our own company's websites, products, and services,
and for other organization's websites, products, and services.
In the case of links to other organization's websites,
our company may receive a payment, (1) if you purchase products or services,
or (2) if you sign-up for third party offers, after following links from this website.
Unless specifically otherwise stated, information about other organization's products and services,
is based on information provided by that organization,
the product/service vendor, and/or publicly available information - and should
not be taken to mean that we have used the product/service in question.
Additionally, our company's websites contain some adverts which we are paid
to display, but whose content is not selected by us, such as Google AdSense ads. For more
detailed information, please see Advertising/Endorsements Disclosures
Our sites use cookies, some of which may already be set on your computer. Use of our site constitutes consent for this. For details, please see Privacy.
Click privacy for information about our company's privacy, data collection and data retention policies, and your rights.
movies.
In the movies, Velociraptors were as large, if not slightly larger, than humans, and also
highly intelligent - however these two aspects of the creature
were probably exaggerated:
