Velociraptor
From Freepedia
| Velociraptor mongoliensis Conservation status: Fossil | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Velociraptor mongoliensis Osborn, 1924 |
Velociraptor mongoliensis ("fast thief"), was an agile and slender theropod dinosaur species from the Upper Cretaceous (Campanian) with an up-curved skull and large sickle-shaped claws. They are commonly known as raptors, a name which can also refer to other dromaeosaurids.
Claws and teeth
Velociraptors had strong jaws with rows of bladed teeth. These, in combination with large claws on their forelimbs and sickle-shaped talons on the second toe (the size of these claws could reach up to the length of the teeth on extinct saber-toothed cats), gave the animals some impressive weaponry.
In 2005, a BBC documentary, The Truth About Killer Dinosaurs, created an artificial Velociraptor leg and sickle claw to demonstrate the claw's power - when tested on a pork belly, the claw failed to fully penetrate it, demonstrating that the popular notion of Velociraptor using the claw to disembowel its prey (as in the movie Jurassic Park) was false.
Evidence as to how the claw was actually used is provided by one of the more spectacular specimens of Velociraptor, found in the Gobi desert in 1971. It is a complete, articulated skeleton clutching the skeleton of a Protoceratops. The penetrating toe claw is near to where the Protoceratops's jugular vein would have been, and the Velociraptor's arm is clutched in the herbivore's jaws. This suggests Velociraptor used its sickle claw for precision killing, to pierce its victim's jugular vein or windpipe. The dinosaurs may have been caught in a sandstorm, or buried as a sand dune fell on top of them. Another interpretation is that Velociraptor grabbed the dead carcass of Protoceratops (which seems to be missing a leg) during a sandstorm or flash flood.
Velociraptor was first found and described by paleontologist H. F. Osborn in Mongolia in 1924. About a dozen Velociraptor fossils have been found, including one who died in a battle to the death with Protoceratops and two hatchling Velociraptor skulls that were found near an oviraptorid nest in Mongolia (they may have been a meal). Fossils have been found in Mongolia, Russia, and China.s
Other characteristics
Velociraptor is among the most birdlike dinosaurs known. Recently, fossils of dinosaurs related to Velociraptor (coelurosaurs) have been found in China with downy feathers on their bodies, and some even have flight feathers on their arms. It is therefore likely that Velociraptor bore feathers too, although no fossil evidence has yet confirmed this. Some of them have also been found in Plaza Huincul, Neuquen in Argentina.
Velociraptor has a skull length of 249 mm (9.80 in), a total length of 2.7 m (8 ft 10 in), a hip height of 0.5 m (1 ft 8 in), and weighs 20 kg (45 lb).
Pop Culture References
Velociraptor is well-known in its role as a vicious and cunning killer from the novel and movie Jurassic Park. The "raptors" portrayed there were modelled after a larger relative, Deinonychus. While the movie was in production, the discovery of Utahraptor confirmed that even larger dromaeosaurids did in fact exist.
Another even larger raptor found was Megaraptor, with a sickle-claw large enough to match the curved shape of a football.
